Tragicomedy in Construction
by Her Majesty of Pluto
Summary: Tyson arrives as a freshman in the school that Kai, a retainee, is going to, and is chosen to play Juliet in the school's drama production. A lot of underlying tensions and heartfelt emotions to come to terms with...all within the setting of a play.
1. Another day, another year in school

**Disclaimer: **(And this disclaimer shall ring true for all the chapters of this fic.) I do not own Beyblade; I just can't get over loving it. The works of literature referred to in this story belong to their respective authors.

**Author's Notes: **I have had this story on my computer for a long, long time and have not had the courage to publish it because I was a little nervous about how it will be received. But everyone to their own tastes and taa dah! Here it is. Anyway, in this story, Shakespeare's _Romeo and Juliet _is the central thing that leads the narrative along. I played around with the character of the various characters and the dynamics between the characters to write this. I can only hope it works somehow.

All the Beyblade boys are in their late teens and attending one of those prestigious colleges that prepares boys for positions in top universities, though in every institution there will always be the occasional bad boy. ;) Oh and another thing, the educational institutions are only semblances of those in the real world. So sometimes, it doesn't tally with the school levels we go to. Nevertheless, I hope you like it!

**Warnings: **Multi-chaptered work. Completely, unabashedly AU. Pairings: Tyson x Kai (the main one which will be the fic's central focus), Tala x Bryan, and HEAVILY hinted at Max x Ray.

* * *

**Chapter 1: Another day, another year in school**

**

* * *

**

Kai Hiwatari strode up to a table at the back which had been immediately vacated by the junior who had been sitting in it when the said young man met the boy's frightened freshman eyes the moment he stepped into the classroom.

A slim red-head languidly sat in the lap of his grey-haired boyfriend, arms around the other guy's neck in the seat beside the one Kai just occupied. He looked at Kai and grinned, aquamarine eyes glinting with certain humor.

"Always the bad boy, aren't you Kai? First day of school and already scaring little boys with those stares of yours," he said voice overly sugar-sweet, with a snicker which was mirrored nicely by Bryan, the guy on whose lap he had made himself comfortable.

"Cut it, Tala. You retained too?" Kai asked, loosening his tie and leaning back in his chair, resting an arm on the backrest.

"Uh-huh," Tala affirmed with a nod, gritting his teeth. "My attendance last year was only a measly 32%. I thought they were joking about the minimum of 75% attendance thing, but it seems they actually kept count. They even barred me from the exams, which I actually studied for."

"You lovebirds just need to turn up for class more instead of fucking around," said Kai with an amused smirk. "It's amazing they let you both keep your dorm rooms. I guess they are too stupid to know what you two do inside either of them."

"Har har har," Tala responded sarcastically. "You are retained because your attendance only chalked up to 24%! At least _we _have some urgent things to attend to."

"You can't blame me for being bored in classes where I practically know everything," the other young man smugly. The smug look went as fast as it came, however, as he suddenly remembered something. "But this time I can't be retained. My grandfather wants me in the University he picked for me."

"Still that old man's shit licker aren't you?"

Kai whipped his head to the maddeningly grinning red-head and was about to retort furiously with something when a voice came from behind him:

"First day of the semester and already at each other's throats? How we remain good friends I don't know."

"Ray?" all three of them, even Bryan, shouted in unison, turning astonished eyes to the golden-eyed, black-haired pal of theirs. Of all four of them, Ray had the best grades and was the only one who took his studies seriously.

"You're retained too?" Kai could not hold back his astonishment.

Ray clenched his teeth and bared it in annoyance at the reason behind his retainment.

"I was suspended for a year, remember? Principal Boris accused me of bringing a woman into campus!"

"Which you did," Tala pointed out practically.

"She's my cousin! Lee's sister? We're all cousins!" Ray shouted, near hysteria, gesticulating furiously despite all the heads his shouting had made turn.

"People in the past marry cousins all the time," was Tala's dismissive answer.

"Tala, you're not helping and eww, gross," Ray responded. "I shouldn't have agreed to show her around but still, it is not as if there are absolutely no women in this campus. There's the Math teacher and…"

Ray drifted off to a stop when he saw that the three of them were silent and that Tala was feigning concentrated interest at something in the far corner of the fast-filling room. He turned towards Tala's object of interest and started. While he was speaking, apparently a particularly cute blond had streamed in with a bespectacled guy and a couple of other boys (despite their age, let's call them boys).

Tala was quick to notice that Ray's attention had been caught and drawled, "Say...isn't that the kid you couldn't stop talking about since we were in high school? The one who lives down the street from you, whom you see everyday on your way to school, and who sometimes walks home with you, and whose parents invited you over before, and in whose home you slept over once when your parents were not home, leaving you with an aching side because you dared not turn to see him asleep?"

"He is hardly a kid anymore, eh Ray?" Bryan added knowingly.

Ray looked like he was about to have a seizure. He sat rigidly in his chair, looking on as the blond took a seat at the far corner by the window, his bespectacled friend taking the seat behind him. Ray still had not recovered from his shock when the blond took to looking around the classroom and spotted him sitting like a stone statue in his chair. He could barely respond when the blond lifted a hand and subjected it to a vigorous wave.

The blond shot up in his seat and bounded over to where the gang was sitting.

"Hey Ray! I didn't expect to see you here! I thought you'd be—"

_Keep it cool. You need to appear friendly and normal,_ Ray lectured himself inwardly.

"I was suspended for a year for bringing my female cousin into the campus so I am retained," Ray blurted out in one breath. "And hey, Max."

Max was taken aback by Ray's train of hastily spoken words and had to take a while to decipher everything that was being said. In time he laughed heartily.

"Oh man, that's too bad. This school sure has some tough rules huh?" Max remarked looking about the room. "It sure was competitive getting into the school."

"Yeah, and it being an all-boys school, you have to be careful not to be felt up by other boys," Tala added in, grinning when Ray shot him a don't-desecrate-his-innocent-mind look.

"That's expected, but I doubt I am _that _attractive to other boys," Max replied with a laugh, he seemed to be rather intrigued by the fact that the red-head who was talking to him was sitting in the lap of another burlier looking guy.

Still looking at Ray, and with a certain glint in his eyes, Tala replied, "Oh you never know..."

Perking up, Tala offered his hand, "Oh by the way, I am Tala, this is my boyfriend Bryan, and this here sourpuss, Mr. Anti-Social, is Kai. Don't bother he won't shake your hand."

Kai proved him wrong by firmly shaking the younger boy's hand and even giving it a hard squeeze much to Ray's distress. Max extracted his hand and commented on his grip. Kai only replied with a 'hn'.

"We are so excited to finally meet you," Tala went on, not noticing Kai's little show of strength. "We've heard so much about you from Ray. He likes—"

Ray's eyes widened to comical proportions as he stared at Tala. His head was shaking in small movements so as to not let Max see, his wide, golden eyes beseeching, and he mouthed, "No". Tala could not wipe the evil grin from his face.

"He likes your hair," Tala finished. For all his cruelty at times, and his Ice Queen hissy silent tantrums when he was mad, Tala was not one to cause his friends pain. If Ray loves Max, it was always best that he did it himself. Unless Tala saw that a push was badly needed, he would not intervene. "Been wanting to dye it blond for some time now."

To the company's mild surprise, Max turned and demonstrated how much of a neighborly bond was there between the black-haired older guy and himself by touching the former's dark bangs.

"Don't Ray," he said, stroking a clump of hair falling over the face of the older guy. "I think it looks better black."

With a good-natured laugh, he let go and added, "We can't have two blonds, can we?"

Tala mouthed "two blonds" to Bryan who had to stifle a knowing laugh. Ray saved his glower for later because Max was still examining his hair and commenting on how long it had grown since he last saw it.

"You like long hair, Max?" Tala asked in a very suspicious attempt to be simply friendly.

Max touched his own hair and scrunched up his nose as he answered, "Nah. It would not look as good on me."

"Do you like long hair on your _men, _Max?" Tala was not going to let it go.

"I don't have any man, if that is what you mean."

The blond's face read no deception and gave no indication that he was being just as cheeky with his answer as Tala was with his question.

_God, this boy _is _green!_ Tala thought in bemusement.

Ray felt himself breathe out a sigh of relief. Thank goodness for Max's "green-ness". Tala's question was giving away too much.

Just then, their form teacher, a certain Mr. Barthez, stepped into the room and called for order. Max gave Ray a parting smile and wink, which sent Ray's heart dropping out and rolling on the floor, under feet and in between table legs; before bounding back to his seat.

"You can't wait any longer, Ray. You need to teach that kid the ways of us men," Tala said, leaning across Kai's table in a conspiring manner as if to pass top-secret information to Ray. His tone carried with it mock seriousness. "I suggest what, when he have Physical Ed. the next time, jump him in the locker room, confess your love and get kinky on the benches. Kai, Bryan and I will make sure no one goes into the room."

"_You _would do that," Ray hissed and Kai actually smirked at the image, which one (Bryan and Tala in the locker room,_ or_ Ray and Max in the locker room) we couldn't tell for sure.

"Back there!" Barthez's voice boomed across the room. "Quiet! And you _misters_! Such public displays of intimacies are not allowed in class or anywhere else on college grounds!"

Tala retorted insolently, even as he slid off Bryan's lap and settled in his seat in front of his boyfriend, "But this is not really considered a public space and no one seemed to mind."

A round of titters ran through the room, but died down as Barthez swept a glare about the room. He was about to say something which spelled along the lines of "You are grounded mister" to Tala but was stopped when the classroom door suddenly burst opened and a figure ran in, clutching his bag for dear life and panting.

"Oh, what have we here," Tala drawled, genuinely interested in the latest freshman who had arrived. He had seen no one interesting, besides Max, but this young man was quick to draw his attention. At this point, Kai, who have been near dozing, looked up and started. He looked around to see if anyone saw him start, but saw that everyone was looking at the young man who had just arrived.

_What is he doing here?_ he demanded inwardly.

He frowned and looked harder. Some things had changed but that young man up front, apologizing to Barthez was definitely who he thought it was. The guy's long, midnight blue hair was tied back into low ponytail which hung down his back, longer than it used to be. A shock of bangs covered his forehead and at times, Kai remembered, shielded his forever sincere dark eyes from view. The bluenette had a longer face and a slenderer body, which was, though slender, no longer the body of a boy; a boy he had known from his past. The voice was only just a little deeper than it used to be...

Kai couldn't help remembering the boy. The same, yet so different. When he first met the boy in primary school, the boy had the worse dress sense ever—shorts with the long socks—on top of that he was loud and gregarious, and always somehow getting on Kai's nerves. They fought a lot even though they were in different classes because Kai used to pick on little boys at the playground and that particular boy would have none of it. Small he may be, but Kai remembered he could deliver some really painful punches. The frequent playground fights ended up being ritual friendly playground fights, all the way till they were about twelve and thirteen. Kai's iciness never seemed to get over to the boy and he was always the one to come up to Kai and let him have it when he needed to. Yet, the fights were always the best part of school for Kai, never mind the detention they got, or the cleaning duty. Of course, as the boy grew older, he thankfully shed his dumb shorts and socks for better looking jeans instead. It was some time after Kai just turned fourteen that...

* * *

"And then he was gone," Kai told the gang, with his usual nonchalance, at the end of the day's classes as they stuffed things back into their lockers. "Must have transferred to another school or something. I was just surprised to see him in class today that's all."

Ray had been more concerned about more pressing issues. The reading list for Literature class proved to be an immense cause for distress. Just as he was about to say something about it, a collection of voices approached from around the corner and caused them all to turn. Tala turned away first just as the group appeared and rolled his eyes at Ray. Ray only smiled knowingly.

"Have you seen the list of all the new students for this intake?" a heavy Scots-accented voice asked before the person asking came into view.

Their immaculately polished shoes clip-clopped across the floor as they walked, seemingly oblivious to all the commonplace hullabaloo in the corridor. However, people made way for them and they passed with no acknowledgment of such honors bestowed upon them, in crisp uniforms, bearing proudly the crests of their aristocratic families on the front of their blazers.

"I have and I must add, being rather out of my character here, that a certain Tyson Granger looks awfully...attractive," a clipped voice mused. "It is a pity that he created such a bad impression of himself on the first day of school, so I heard."

At the name, Kai looked up and recognized Robert. His family owned the school and he pretty much had access to all school facilities and information. His family was also the one who gave out the scholarships which had allowed Tyson Granger, yes that was the boy, to study in this school.

"He may improve upon further notice, do not give up on him yet," green-haired Oliver remarked with a smile.

Tala and Bryan executed mocking sweeping bows as the group of four passed. As always they ended up being snubbed by the school's resident royalty but still had a good laugh over it because they knew the four—Robert, Johnny, Enrique, and Oliver—were deliberately ignoring them. Their Majesties never had much time for lowly retains and commoners, unless they struck their royal fancies.

"Well, my dear," Tala said, imitating a London Street accent of the Victorian ages as he turned to Bryan. "Isn't Oliver TWIST looking well today?"

Bryan, barely containing his laughter could only respond with, "Yes!"

And the two burst out laughing, stumbling into each other. Ray shook his head in bemusement. When the two were not entwined in each other, they were best friends. That _was _how they started anyway. Best friends. Ray heaved a heavy sigh. There was still hope for him and Max yet.

* * *

**Next Chapter: Princes(ses), Birthdays and Trials**


	2. Princesses, Birthdays and Trials

**Note: **Disclaimer is as of the first chapter.

**Warnings: **Mild-swearing...nothing you can't handle. :D

* * *

**Chapter 2: Princes(ses), Birthdays and Trials**

**

* * *

**

Word of Robert's immediate approval of Tyson Granger got around the school (boys gossip too), and the aforementioned freshman soon attained the privileged position of 'princess' of the school. Tyson was blissfully unaware of his new found royal status and over a short period of time became one of the more popular kids in school.

Kai constantly watched from his corner as the bluenette chattered at a mile an hour about practically everything. Tyson was always looking spiffy in his uniform, even though the sleeves of his blazer were always folded to the elbows and his red-and-green tie askew half the time. Kai chewed his cud on the differences between the boy he always fought with in the playground and the young man just on the cusp of adulthood.

He must have grown a lot smarter over those years to have attained the school's prestigious scholarship. Kai feigned stony disinterest but watched as Tyson chattered with some friends as he sat on his desk with his feet planted on the seat. He had gotten tight with Max and Kenny, the bespectacled genius of the cohort. He was taller and Kai had to admit that there was a certain grace in everything he did which had been absent when he was still only a loud, uncouth boy who dug his nose and relished in flicking his pickings at people. He _was _very handsome and in a lot of ways pretty too...especially his eyes. What had happened to bring on such a change?

"It's called puberty," he heard Tala's voice close to his ears. He shrugged Tala away, concealing the start he got from the sudden intrusion. He couldn't believe that he had said it all out loud somehow. Either that or Tala was a bloody mind-reader.

"Hn," Kai grunted and closed his eyes, his arms crossed over his chest as usual.

Tala took his seat in front of Kai, straddling the chair, and eyed his friend curiously.

"Why are you wondering about that kid over there?" Tala asked. He looked over his shoulder at Tyson and added appreciatively, "A real looker isn't he?"

"He didn't used to look like that," Kai found himself saying involuntarily.

"Well, looking like _that_ now, he can't be very ugly as a kid," Tala pointed out. "Who was he to you in the past anyway?"

"Nobody. Just a kid." Kai's reply was laconic. In truth, he desperately wanted this conversation over, which, he argued inwardly, was uncalled for since he had nothing to hide. _Where was the teacher anyway?_

"Fine be that way. But something tells me...there is more than meets the eye in this whole thing."

"Cut it, Ivanov. I don't do relationships remember? They are a waste of my time."

"Indeed," Tala said simply, but his smile said a whole lot more.

Kai cursed under his breath but on impulse looked over. He saw that Tyson was looking his way. When their eyes met, the bluenette smiled a very familiar yet tantalizingly new smile. Kai didn't smile back, only darted his eyes away and closed them once more.

* * *

_Seven-year-old Tyson Granger never knew how to bake._

_Yet after detention with Kai that particular day, he wanted to bake something for the cold, overly serious boy._

"_You mean you never had cake before?" Tyson asked, dark, wine-coloured eyes growing rounder by the minute. "Never ever? EVER?"_

_Kai, then a child of eight, crossed his arms and scowled before wincing at the sharp pain in his face where a dark shadow was spreading from one of Tyson's blows. _

"_Never," he answered angrily. "Now will you shut up?"_

"_Quiet, you two!" the teacher in charge of detention snapped from the front of the empty classroom._

"_But it's your birthday tomorrow, right?" Tyson whispered insistently. "How come you never told anyone?"_

"_Because I don't want any idiot celebrating it, moron!"_

"_Quiet Hiwatari! Otherwise it is double detention for you and your grandpa will be informed."_

_Kai blanched at the mention of the old man and settled back, gritting his teeth at the injustice of it all. He turned to send a death glare at the boy sitting next to him, but Tyson had his face forward, angelically quiet and seemingly deep in thought for a boy so young. Kai looked at him for a while, willing him to turn so that he could have a staring match. Despite the intensity of Kai's glare, the younger boy did not turn. However, when detention was over, Tyson actually looked over at Kai and disarmed the older boy with a wide, wide grin._

"_See you tomorrow!" Tyson called out as he ran down the corridor. Young Kai stood at the doorway staring after him._

It was strange how memories work. How the fights they had seemed vague at this age, and all he could remember was that the fights always psyched him up for anything. So what if he returned to the Hiwatari second mansion to find his grandfather there with the cane. So what if he was caned after that for fighting in school and creating a bad image for the family. The fights always made every other thing pale in comparison. However, despite their significance, one completely unrelated moment stood out above all the rest in Kai Hiwatari's memories.

_Eight year old Kai Hiwatari waited in the playground just outside of the school. He was not going home until he had a fight. That day he would win. Granger is late, he fumed as he rocked himself gently on a swing. Letting out a frustrated grunt, he kicked the dirt with his sneakered foot. Coward! he wanted to shout. _

_Something was thrust up to his face. Something that smelled like dirt. Kai drew back and looked down. Something dark, resembling garden soil (and smelling like it) was packed into a disposable cake tin. On it, were small stones arranged to spell his name wrongly as "Ky", and eight colourful candles placed in an arc over the name. _

_He looked up into the radiant face of his daily opponent just as the younger boy cried out, "Happy Birthday Kai!"_

"_Since it is your birthday today, we will not fight okay?" young Tyson said as he handed the astonished older boy the mud pie. "I went home straight after detention yesterday and got all the stuff ready before making this. Grandpa would not let me use the oven, so I thought this would be just fine."_

_Kai looked down at the packed mud in the silver plate. It was heavy, being packed as tightly as it had been. He felt a little strange, especially when Tyson started to sing a birthday song for him. The first time he wanted to celebrate his birthday, his grandfather had admonished him severely. There was no time in the world for such things, the old man had told him. Only power. There was space for only power; the building of an immense business empire. Kai had been brought up that way ever since. _

_Right then he held a plate of mud and did not know how exactly to react. A part of him for some strange reason wanted to break into a smile, and another screamed out the irrationality of the whole affair to him._

_He picked the latter, as always._

"_You can't eat dirt, twerp."_

_He half expected Tyson to start looking hurt and cry. No such luck. If there was something about Tyson that kept drawing him, it was the fact that Tyson never did things the way Kai always thought he should. The younger boy sat in the swing next to him and started playing on it very contentedly. _

"_Maybe someday, Kai, I will make you something you _can _eat. How about that? But that would be years and years from now when I grow up and grandpa will let me do things!" he said as he swung, his face looking towards the distant sky which was by then starting to gain a rosy tinge. _

_Before Kai could reply with anything, Tyson jumped from his swing and started running off, shouting over his shoulder, "Tomorrow we fight! And I will win!"_

_Kai felt as if he lost that day...but it had not felt like a bad loss._

_Kai was late getting home, and when he got home, he sullenly told one of the servants to get him a small flower pot. Once the item was delivered to him, the servants watched curiously, as he locked himself up in his room. The next day, the cleaning maid found the small pot filled with dirt and a small seedling was already starting to appear. The pot had an unlighted candle stuck into it and some stones strewn about the top of the soil. He forbade anyone to touch it, and could only trust himself to water the plant as it grew over the years._

_

* * *

_

This of course, he never told anyone. How such a child had created so profound an impact on him was something he could hardly fathom.

"Heads up Kai! Dream like that and you can kiss your good looking face goodbye!" Ray's voice pierced through his veil of thoughts and shortly after that, Kai saw the soccer ball that was hurtling his way.

With a grunt, he jumped, caught the ball with his chest, and kicked it to Tala in the midfield. CCA [1] was such drab work, especially when it was the trials for the newcomers. After the sophomores and seniors had their little match, the soccer trials began. Kai and Ray followed the rest of the soccer club members to the side of the field, outside of the playing area. They plonked themselves down on the grass with their water bottles to watch the soccer trials. Tala and Bryan took to playing commentators, calling themselves Ali and A.J, much to the amusement of everyone else watching.

The freshies were not too bad, although Kai did spot some who could barely dribble to save their asses when the time called for it. He turned to Ray and his look said everything. Ray only smiled, shook his head and took another gulp of water.

A noise from the tracks surrounding the field caught Kai's attention. Apparently, the Track-and-Field [2] trials were on the same day. Unlike soccer, they had a lot to cover, so theirs spanned over a period of two days. He spotted a familiar head of blonde locks among those warming up for the running numbers and glanced at Ray knowingly. Ray's eyes were already locked on the figure to notice Kai's look.

Kai was about to turn back to the trial on the field when something else caught his attention and made him do a double take. Among those warming up, at the same time talking, and smiling to Max was Tyson. He was clad in only a plain, white T-shirt, tucked loosely into running shorts and Kai did not fail to notice how slender Tyson's body was, as if puberty never happened.

The runners took their start positions. Max was not in that particular number, so he stood to one side and looked like he was going to cheer Tyson on. Tyson grinned at his friend and crouched into the start position. When the gun went off, Kai was almost taken aback when that boy shot out like he had been on compressed springs. _He's fast!_ he found himself thinking. It was the 400 m run and all that could be seen of Tyson was a sort of white streak around the soccer field. Even those on soccer trial stopped to watch.

Tyson came in first with plenty of room between him and the person in second position. Max ran up to him once he was at the finish line, and Kai saw the senior-in-charge read out something from his clipboard to Tyson, who beamed and high-fived Max. Kai saw that Kenny was there, carrying his precious laptop as usual...and Robert was there as well, seated in the viewing gallery of the grandstand with the rest of his aristocratic coveys. Kai felt his face twitch a little at the sight of the purple-haired young man.

The 1600 m trial came next. Tyson was an amazing short distance sprinter, but not much of a long distance runner. The honor of the title went to Max, who was one to pace himself out rather than use up all his energy in a single burst of speed. Once the gun went, he was off, but he did not push himself any further up front, until the next round, and subsequently gaining speed until he was at his last lap.

When the 1600 m took place, Ray's attention was once more on the track rather than the soccer trials going on in the field. He caught Max's attention and the blonde brightly lifted a hand to wave as he ran. Ray grinned and showed him a thumbs-up sign. Tala and Bryan were, fortunately, back playing commentators and did not notice the exchange; otherwise, Ray knew that they would not let him live it down.

* * *

The locker room was packed as the trials all ended at about the same time. Boys were clamoring, mostly half-dressed, to get their things from the lockers or, were simply pulling their weight around, for boys, no matter what their age, would always be boys. The older ones were quick to exploit their authority to gain spaces on benches. In one corner, a squeak sounded, followed by raucous laughter where some freshman actually got playfully groped. With all that was going on around him, Ray found himself praying hard that no one would come onto Max.

Just as he spoke it in his heart, the very object of his locker room anxiety came out of the bathroom area, clad only in his jeans, with a towel across his shoulders, and a waterproof bag for his clothes swinging in one hand. Ray ducked behind the safety of his opened locker door and put on a magnificent show of rummaging through his things. He had noticed all that span of pale, blemish-free skin and it was making him burn right to the tips of his ears.

However, a voice made him look around his locker door once more and he was just in time to see Michael, the school's star baseball player approach Max as said boy was taking his T-shirt from his locker. Michael's smile was almost seductive and definitely spelled "coming on to you". Ray watched, poised to step in when he had to. The locker room was apparently a favored place to get kinky.

"Wow Max!" Michael exclaimed as he approached the younger guy who still had his T-shirt in his hands. "You were good out there on the track!"

"Gee, thanks!" Max replied brightly, taking the time to put on his T-shirt. "And you are?"

Michael winced a little.

"That must hurt," Kai remarked from where he sat tying his shoelaces.

Undeterred by Kai's remark which he had overheard, Michael held out his hand and introduced himself, "Michael. Michael Parker. Star of this school's baseball team."

Someone could be heard groaning and another gagging, but Michael valiantly ignored them.

"Nice to meet you, Michael," Max returned, shaking his hand.

He was a little surprised when Michael didn't let go of his hand after the handshake. Michael was leaning in closer by then and Max looked on, a little puzzled.

"So Max, do you have—"

Whatever he wanted to say, he couldn't complete because something hard smacked straight into the side of his face with great force. He fell to the side and started cussing, forced to let go of Max's hand.

"What the fuck was _that_?!" he exclaimed, clutching the side of his face and sending a glare around.

"Oops! My bad!" a voice called from the crowd of snickering boys, and soon a certain red-head emerged. He bent over Michael as he scooped up the baseball he had just previously thrown Michael's way.

Tala helped Michael up and with a great quantity of concern in his voice went on to say, "Oh! I am _so_ sorry, Michael. My pitching really needs work."

"I can fucking see that!" Michael shrieked right into Tala's face as he stood up, cupping a hand over the fast-bruising side of his face. "This will take weeks to return to perfection!"

Tala made a great show of brushing the grime from Michael's shirt front and said, "I think you are the one to show me how it is to be done, Michael. How about we..."

He led Michael away from the bewildered Max, out of the locker room, and as he passed Ray and Kai, he gave the former a knowing wink. Ray took the cue and smiled his thanks.

As Ray went over to Max, Kai noticed someone else emerge from the bathroom, clad in his T-shirt and jeans, rubbing his long hair dry. All eyes turned appreciatively to the newcomer. Kai saw, for the first time, the midnight hair hung loose, unconfined by the band which always tied it back. From some angles, he realized, Tyson could easily pass of as girl. Someone gave a whistle, and Tyson blissfully unaware, went straight to where Ray and Max were, where his locker obviously was.

He passed where Kai sat. By then Kai was already looking away but he waited till Kai looked up again before smiling and continuing on his way. Kai found himself not a little puzzled. He did not know what to make out of the bluenette. Since day one of school, Kai had expected Tyson to bound up to him and start chattering the way Max did Ray. Yet, Tyson kept his distance and never spoke a word to him. Kai, who liked his solitude and quiet, wasn't sure he liked this silence between them. Kai wondered whether Tyson even remembered him after all those years of absence.

Kai's silent musing was disrupted when something wet stung his face. He looked up to see Tala, returned from where ever he had left Michael, flicking a towel at him. The second assault caught him in the eye and he cussed. Kai looked at Bryan who was rolling deodorant onto his armpit. From the way Bryan was grinning at him, Kai didn't think he was going to be much help in stopping his boyfriend. Tala prepared the towel for another assault.

"Fuck you, Ta—"

Kai's words was cut off abruptly by a distant rumble, a rumble which made everyone, including himself, groan.

* * *

**Footnotes: **

[1] CCA: Co-Curricular Activity, in other words out-of-class club activities. In my country, co-curricular simply meant it is compulsory, as opposed to extra-curricular activities.

[2] Track-and-Field: Athletics, I think they call it.

* * *

**Next chapter: A Re-meeting in the Rain and an Unforeseen Dinner**


	3. A Remeeting in the Rain

**Notes: **Disclaimer is as of the first chapter.

**Author Notes: **I am a bit of a literature buff...haha, so I hope you don't mind the references to the books. Some quotations from books are just so appropriate for Kai (as you will see later with Romero) that I couldn't pass of the chance to take a stab at it. And if Tyson seems OOC-ish, it is simply because he has grown up somewhat. I only hope he does not seem too unfamiliar. :D

**Warnings: **A long chapter?

* * *

**Chapter 3: A Re-meeting in the Rain and an Unforeseen Dinner**

**

* * *

**

Rain came down in torrents as Kai watched with stony-faced dismay from the entrance of the school building. Tala and Bryan had dorm rooms as their homes were far away from the school, and they didn't have umbrellas to loan him. Well, Bryan confessed that he had a raincoat, but it was yellow and horribly conspicuous and the last thing Kai wanted was to be so grotesquely conspicuous. Max's dad came to pick him up and Max had offered both Ray and his friend, Kai, a ride home. Kai had declined because he doubted he wanted to get into Ray's moment and he had thought he could call his chauffer on occasions like this. (He usually walked home because it was nicer that way.) He never expected his cell phone battery to go flat on him the way it did.

So he could wait it out in Tala's or Bryan's room (which he honestly wasn't keen on doing then), wait it out himself at the school entrance, or simply walk home in the rain. He opted for the last option. He had only one foot forward and head not even out in the pattering rain when a blue umbrella opened beside him and came over his head. Surprised he turned to see, lo and behold, THE Tyson Granger standing beside him, smiling up at the older boy as if it was the most natural thing to do. If there were some things that didn't change, it was the way Tyson tended to smile so disarmingly at people and the fact that Tyson was still a little bit shorter than himself.

"You wanna share an umbrella?" his younger classmate asked.

Kai stared down at him. This was the first time Tyson talked to him since they started school. It came as a surprise...and oddly, not an unpleasant one. A part of Kai expected the younger guy to talk to him eventually. Perhaps, and this he would never admit, he had been waiting for it to happen. Waited for so long that when it happened, right then with the offer of an umbrella shared, he had not the words for the occasion. Turning away, Kai gave a small nod and they started walking, sharing what bit of shelter the umbrella could provide for the two of them.

After a while, Kai quietly took hold of the umbrella from Tyson, careful for some reason to not brush his hand against the other guy's.

"I'm taller, it's easier if I hold it," was his nonchalant answer to the questions on the other one's expression.

A light punch came down on his shoulder, but Kai, strangely expecting that, didn't flinch.

"I'm only just a little shorter than you and you are already blowing your trumpet about it!" Tyson shouted into his ear.

_This is something familiar, _Kai found himself thinking with some degree of mirth.

Out loud, he said, "I thought you forgot who I was, _Granger_."

The rain came down around them as they splashed it out home. The road seemed so familiar then. After their fights, they always walked home like this, oddly contented, feeling little need for conversation. Right then however, _some_ conversation, Kai felt, was due. Haven't they got a lot to pick up from?

Interlacing his fingers behind his head, Tyson replied with a laugh, "How can I forget you, Kai? The guy I always fought with back when we were still in elementary school."

"Then you left after that, without a word," Kai was aware a little too late that he might have sounded hurt then and perhaps accusatory too.

"It was not expected. Suddenly, before I knew anything, I was all packed for the city where I lived with my father and brother for a while. I didn't have time to say goodbye, not even to Gramps," Tyson said, hands still behind his head, leaning back into it as if he was relaxing on a lounge chair. "Hiro thought sophisticated city life would be good for me and there was no arguing with him."

"What happened?"

"I didn't like it there. Dad was always at the university with his research and his books and Hiro with his school. Then Hiro got transferred as you can well see. He's our Physical Ed. teacher," Tyson rolled his eyes as he said this.

Kai smirked. That was true. It had shocked a lot of people to find it out but they were quick to see that Mr. Granger was not one to be nice to anyone during Physical Ed., not even his own brother.

"So you live with your brother now?"

Tyson shook his head.

"He's married now, and besides I miss my grandpa and my adopted younger brother."

"You have an adopted younger brother?" Kai asked. He had remembered the teenager with grey-blue hair who was always telling him off after every fight with Tyson, but he had not remembered an adopted younger brother.

A nod, followed by a grin. "We found him in the jungle, but don't tell him that."

They passed by several houses in silence. Kai scrutinised each one discreetly but failed to remember which one was Tyson's, much to his secret dismay.

In time, Kai asked, "So is it still a long way to your house?"

"We just passed it," Tyson replied casually.

Kai stopped and it took patters of rain on his face for Tyson to realize that Kai had stopped.

"Shouldn't we be going back?" Kai asked. "Why didn't you say that we just passed your house?"

Tyson stared at him as if he had just asked something odd.

"Your mansion is still a long way from here," Tyson reasoned, wine-coloured eyes looking at Kai unfalteringly. "I thought I would walk you home and then retrace my steps back to mine."

Kai's eyes narrowed as he spoke, "I don't need anyone walking me home."

"But you need the umbrella. I couldn't possibly let you walk in the rain."

Kai blinked, feeling a certain jolt in him. No one in his life ever bothered whether he walked in the rain or not. If he said he wanted to walk in the rain, everyone, even Tala, Bryan, and Ray would let him go with it. Here was someone who was overly concerned about him having some way to go home without getting wet, even if it meant going out of his way to ensure it. Kai had no doubt that this was the young man who had grown from the boy he used to know. Still, it was all bloody ridiculous.

Looking away, Kai replied tersely, "You can loan it to me, moron."

"Okay," Tyson said with a shrug, wheeling around to start walking back to his house. Kai followed suit. A part of him pounded himself in his face. He hated to admit that he wanted the bluenette to walk him home, hated that he actually desired this young man's company.

"So, who's home?" he heard Tyson ask, piercing his way into Kai's thoughts.

"Only the servants."

"Dinner?"

"Wha—" Kai turned a slightly shocked expression to his companion.

"Dinner," Tyson emphasized. "You're eating dinner alone?"

"Pretty much," he growled. He was, admittedly a little angry with himself for assuming for a fraction of a second that Tyson was inviting him to dinner.

"Say, if that's the case," Tyson began. "Would you like to have dinner with my family tonight? That is if you don't mind not eating the cuisine you are always used to."

Kai never understood how Tyson could throw him all these curveballs and so naturally too. One moment he thought Tyson was inviting him to dinner, and then he thought he had thought wrong...only to have it turn out true.

"I'm sure grandpa will be okay with it," Tyson went on, looking back at Kai who was staring at him. Grinning, he added, "Come on! It's been a long time, Kai!"

Kai debated inwardly, only debating proved useless. It didn't take much thought for him to pick up the gait, umbrella in hand, once more splashing in the rain, and walk with Tyson back to his house which they had casually passed before.

"When you started school," Kai began out of the blue when they had walked some distance in silence. He surprised himself in even asking it. "What took you so long to talk to me, knowing who I am..."

Tyson laughed a little at this and did not move to answer for some time. Kai stole a furtive glance at his companion. He noticed that Tyson had his ears pierced. On the ear facing Kai, there were two black studs and Kai remembered seeing that exact number on the other ear too. Two piercings in each ear, Kai mused. This boy was even wilder than himself for he only had one ear pierced with one earring hole. Gone indeed was the boy who used to wear shorts and long, white socks.

"I don't know," Tyson said, looking up at the overcast sky, his hands once more behind his head. "I guess I was afraid that you've changed...what with the friends you have now. You used to be such a loner."

Kai didn't say that Tyson perhaps had something to do with his change. Indeed, he shunned the company of people in the past. It took the eagerness of a young boy, day after day of a round at the playgrounds, and a plate of dirt to show him that having people in your life was not a bad thing at all. Kai allowed himself a small, furtive smile. Thus, there were Ray, Tala, and Bryan.

Kai climbed up the short set of steps to a sort of open air verandah. The wooden floor was slick with rain, yet Tyson closed his umbrella, sprinkling more water onto it. He pushed open a door and dropped the umbrella into a basket already filled with umbrellas. Kai suddenly felt nervous as he stepped into the house. Apart from Tala's and Bryan's dorm, their respective homes and Ray's for the occasional events like a movie night or game marathons, he had never been to anyone's house for something as intimate as a casual dinner. He had never met Tyson's grandfather before, and the whole idea of a grandfather brought to his mind the image of his own, cold, rigid, and power hungry one. His hand automatically went to his tie and he found himself straightening it as if he was going to meet his future in-laws. The idea snapped him to his senses and he whipped his hand away.

Tyson discarded his wet shoes and stepped barefooted up onto the raised area of the main house.

"You can use those slippers if you are uncomfortable going around barefooted. They are for guests," he heard Tyson tell him as he proceeded to remove his own shoes. "But you can go barefooted if you like."

Kai started at the unfamiliar casualness of Tyson's household. It had nothing of the protocols present in his mansion. He was extremely wary upon entering the house, after choosing to go barefooted. He had never walked around barefooted in his own mansion before. The feeling was liberating and almost...amusing.

"Nothing like your mansion I'm sure, but hey, it's home!" Tyson said brightly as they walked down a hallway to a room at the far end.

Looking around, Kai replied involuntarily, "It's cozy."

"Awww..." Tyson began, placing a punch on his arm. "You don't have to try to find anything nice to say to me. Anyway, you can leave your stuff in my room."

At the mention of his room, Tyson pushed open a door to reveal a small but surprisingly tidy bedroom. Kai hesitated stepping into the room...it was such a private domain. In time, he did and carefully placed his bag down on the study table. He noticed that Tyson had a large bookshelf lined on one side of the room, against a far wall. On one level, just above the row of closed cupboards built into the shelf design, were framed pictures of himself, his brother and his father, and more of his grandpa and a red-headed boy Kai couldn't recognize. One had them---the grandpa and the red-headed boy---both grinning into the camera as they squeezed a despairing Tyson between them. There was a rather old picture of a beautiful young woman, whom Kai presumed, from the striking resemblance between her and his younger classmate, to be Tyson's mother, whom Kai knew passed away when Tyson was little. In one corner, he saw an empty glided-edged photo frame.

"Why is this one empty?" he wondered aloud despite himself.

"Wha-? Oh..." Tyson said getting a little embarrassed. "Call me a sentimental idiot, but..."

Kai turned his head a little, feeling suddenly intrigued.

Tyson was scratching the back of his head, a gesture fully familiar to Kai as it dated to way back when they were still children. The former's face was tinged with pink.

"I made this sort of promise to myself..." Tyson began embarrassedly. "That it will remain empty until I find someone I love and whose picture I would put inside so that I can put it beside my mother's...to look at it everyday."

His voice was soft when he said this and it led Kai to think, namely due to a certain mud pie, what a sentimental person Tyson generally was. Auburn eyes returned to the empty photo frame and lingered there before he turned them to the group of odd trinkets arranged neatly in one corner—folded paper stars in a bottle, a heart-shaped tin-box with the words _For Tyson_ written in glow-in-the-dark 3D marker, among other things which Kai abruptly found nauseating. One reason for such nausea being that back in high school, he remembered the notes and chocolates that girls used to slip under his desk and such. He never felt at all inclined to keep them, but then again, none of the girls really bothered to make him anything. Perhaps that was one marked difference between them. Tyson was someone girls would put in the extra effort to make things for. He was not just another pretty face; he had a heart no one else possessed.

Kai felt a sudden prick within him, for reasons unbeknownst to him, but swallowed it down rather angrily and asked with mild disinterest, "So I don't think these are from a girlfriend?"

Tyson laughed and answered dismissively from behind him, "Naaah...admirers from my high school days. I never could tell them that I swung in the other direction, but I kept everything that was given to me because the girls put in a lot of effort to make them."

_Point on_, thought Kai bitterly, much to his own surprise.

Another realization made Kai whip his head around to look at the younger guy. Something Tyson had said about swinging... But before he could say anything, the door to the room burst open and two viciously roaring figures suddenly crashed into the bedroom and jumped Tyson backwards onto the bed.

Kai, despite himself, was startled backwards himself. A sprightly elderly man and a boy, younger than Tyson, with fiery red hair---the duo from the glomping picture---bent over Tyson laughing. Tyson's face was a real study as he peered up at them from where he lay and Kai actually had to take a moment to still his rapidly beating heart. Even he, taught to be prepared for anything, was not expecting that.

Sitting up, Tyson cried out angrily, "Why do you two have to keep doing that each time I get home?"

The red-headed boy only laughed while the elder gentleman said, jabbing Tyson playfully in the ribs, "You should have been more prepared ma' boy! Daichi here and I have been waiting all day to do that."

"Yeah!" the said Daichi exclaimed, in a loud, scratchy voice. "What took you so long to get back?"

"I had sports trials remember?" Tyson shouted back.

Kai dipped a pinky into one ear and twisted it a little. This was obviously a family of shouters and screamers, Kai thought. At least, this side of the family. From his Physical Ed. periods with the junior, junior Mr. Granger, Tyson's brother was a lot quieter...though more annoying and something of a dungeon overlord.

"Well did ya make it, boy?" Grandpa asked.

"Did ya? Did ya?" Daichi parroted, bouncing up and down on the bed.

Beaming, Tyson replied, "The results are not out yet, but I was the fastest guy today!"

There was another racket—Grandpa was viciously giving Tyson a noogie, Tyson was protesting against the noogie, and Daichi was announcing rather redundantly that he would be the fastest in the school if only he was old enough to be going to the college and that Tyson could easily be eating his dirt.

Everyone was talking at once. Kai leaned against the bookshelf, crossed his arms, and watched them mildly. Yup, it definitely was a family of shouters and screamers. It was different from his mansion where every footstep echoed and where each echo soon became a friend. Servants darted away into the shadows once you did not need them, the ceilings were unnecessarily high, and hallways stretched for too long.

Tyson's house was cozy indeed.

"Will you stop?" Tyson cried out. "We have a guest today!"

With that, he indicated Kai who was standing; hiding everything felt with practiced nonchalance.

Daichi took him by surprise though. The short red-head rushed up to him and pointed an accusing finger at the dual-haired young man.

"You! Who are you and state your purpose here in Port Royale!" A while later he added, "And no lies!"

Kai stared down at the finger which was almost jabbing him in the face, taken completely aback, not knowing exactly by what—the finger, the sudden turn on him by the red-head terror, or the fact that the boy had uttered what was an appropriate adaptation of the lines from _Pirates of the Caribbean_.

"Daichi! Don't be rude! And have you been watching _that_ movie again?" Tyson cut in between them, pushing the finger and the hand it was attached to, down. "Anyway, I invited him over for dinner!"

"Dinner eh?" Grandpa remarked, coming up to Kai in record speed before peering at him all too interestedly. "Been a long time since we had guests."

Holding out a hand, he added with a grin, "I'm Tyson's grandfather. You can call me Gramps, or Grandpa, or Dude...anything that suits your fancy."

Tyson rolled his eyes.

"Any friend of Tyson's is welcome here," Grandpa Granger added.

Kai could not help noticing how different Tyson's grandfather was from his own. He took the hand hesitatingly and was rewarded with a vicious shake.

"And I'm Daichi!" the boy screamed directly into his face. "The greatest playground fighter in the whole world."

Placing himself in a battle stance, he continued, "C'mon you with the weird hair, I'll take you on!"

Kai actually contemplated tweaking him with a thumb and finger on the nose, but chose to raise an eyebrow. Perhaps something of Tyson had rubbed off this boy. However, as much as Kai would never admit it to anyone, the only person he considered the greatest playground fighter in the world was Tyson.

"Will you guys leave him alone?" Tyson called out to them. "He's supposed to feel welcome, not scared shitless to come here anymore!"

"And one more thing!" Daichi managed to shout. "Tyson's _mine_! So hands off, okay?"

A vein in Tyson's temple throbbed as he dislodged Daichi who had by then clung to his waist. He struggled to send the duo out of the room.

"Just get dinner ready, okay? And Daichi let me define '_my brother'_ again...and it means to help me help Grandpa in the kitchen!"

"But you said something else the other time!"

"Daichi!"

"Okay, okay! Sheesh! You don't have to be such a grouch about it," Daichi said and walked out of the room behind Grandpa Granger.

Once the room was vacated by everyone but Kai and himself, Tyson breathed a sigh of relief and turned to face Kai again.

"You have an interesting family," Kai ventured to say. His arms were still crossed but he could not contain his smirk.

"Noisy, you mean," Tyson said, taking off his blazer and proceeding to remove his tie. "There'll be more to come at the dinner table, trust me."

Kai was sure of that, but said nothing. Busy chattering and clanging could be heard from further down in the house. Tyson was by then removed of his tie and blazer. Kai found himself watching, incredibly fascinated as Tyson, perfectly comfortable in his home even with someone in his room, undoing some of his school shirt buttons as he chattered on. Soon, the younger guy turned back to him, sleeves rolled up to his elbows, the first few buttons of his shirt undone.

"Hey, if you wanna remove your blazer, feel free to do so," Tyson invited, looking rather intently at the guy leaning against his bookshelf.

Kai started, turned around to face the bookshelf, and proceeded to remove his blazer. He _was _starting to feel warm. Were his cheeks red? Was that the reason why Tyson had looked at him so intently before? Kai cursed inwardly. _Why was this? Why did he feel so...affected?_

He almost jumped out of his skin when Tyson came up beside him, his hand shooting out to...

...grab at a book from a shelf. Kai looked again at the bookshelf. Save for the one portion where Tyson apparently displayed all his objects of personal sentiment, the rest of the bookshelf was packed full with books. Kai had to raise an eyebrow at this. There were the school textbooks—the dog-eared ones with the indicator tabs protruding out one side, the ones which were actually read through and studied with: History, Biology; and nice neat ones which looked like they were barely touched: namely Math and Physics—but the rest...were books.

It was a good selection apparently. There was a whole collection of all the Jane Austen's works (_Tyson? An Austen fan? _Kai wondered inwardly), good ol' Will Shakespeare took up another spot, there was a splattering of classics—_Robinson Crusoe_, _Wuthering Heights_, _The Count of Monte Cristo_ included—and more contemporary literature—_Midnight's Children_ by Rushdie, _Surfacing_ by Atwood, and even _The Bell Jar_ by Plath.

"Are these all yours?" Kai asked, his indifference barely concealing his amazement. "Do you even read them?"

"Har har har," Tyson remarked dryly, rolling his eyes. "I have and yes, they are all mine. Some years of painstaking part-time work to earn money to spend on books and of scouring second hand bookshops for good deals. Oh, yeah. I steal some from the school library back in the city too."

"Thieving already?" Kai said, turning full around to look at Tyson with a smirk. "And here I was expecting a selection of comic books."

"Ah hah!" Tyson cried, holding up an index finger in triumph. He knelt at the edge of his bed and bent over it to take something from under it. His shirt hung down as he did so, allowing a glimpse of a lean torso and dark...nipples. Kai had to turn away quickly. Of all things! Why was he noticing _that _so intensely? All that skin...

Eventually, Tyson straightened up with a box in hand. He opened it to reveal his comic book collection.

"There's still more where these came from," Tyson told his companion, indicating the dark abyss under his bed. "Maybe some day, they would be collector's editions! I can then sell them on e-bay at exorbitant prices!"

Kai raised an eyebrow, but admittedly, the younger guy's goofy enthusiasm was contagious. He found himself chuckling.

Tyson laughed with him as he replaced the box. Straightening up again, he added seriously, "I like comics still, but I like my books better. And I just have this crazy habit of wanting to see them every time I walk into my room."

Perking up he added, "You know those old mansions that have libraries lined floor to ceiling with old leather-bound and linen-bound copies of books, Kai?"

Kai replied with a characteristic, "Hn", though he was actually interested to hear more. There was simply something in the way Tyson was talking about all this; the way his eyes grew large and glowed, and how he sounded like he was putting his all into what he was saying... It was perhaps what drew young Kai to the annoying little boy with the long socks, stupid shorts and the T-shirt with a neck that always looked like he was rubbing his dripping nose on it.

"I've always wanted to see something like that," Tyson finished, leaning back on his arms and staring up at the ceiling dreamily.

Feeling his cheeks suddenly flush, Kai trained his eyes on the books once more.

"Strange thing for a man to fantasize," he said. "Can't do anything to that."

Kai sensed a pillow being thrown his way and reached out a hand to his side to expertly catch it. Spinning around again, he tossed it back from whence it came.

"Now tell me, alien intruder," Kai said menacingly. "What have you done to the real Tyson?"

"Icy Kai Hiwatari finally learnt to tell a joke?" Tyson questioned quirking an eyebrow. "Anyway, if you're wondering how I came to like books so much...well I had to take literature classes back in the city high school I went to, and I fell in love with it, not to mention aced it."

Staring down at the book he just pulled out, he said quietly, "A lot can be said through literature."

"You've changed," Kai observed.

Tyson looked up, surprised, then grinned.

"I think it's called 'maturity', Kai. I cannot keep fooling around forever you know."

"A little fooling around is okay."

Tyson stared at him wide-eyed for a while and then broke into another grin. "If you miss me, just say so, Kai!"

"Never gonna happen," replied Kai.

"Anyway, what is that book?" he asked as Tyson's good-natured laughter died down and after he had neatly dodged another pillow thrown his way without bothering to catch it.

"For our Literature class this coming Friday. I'm psyched! It's a classic...like reeeeally classic. Shakespeare's _Romeo and Juliet._"

Kai groaned a little. He had clean forgotten about the week's reading. Why had he allowed himself, (him, Kai!) to be led by Tala into taking up the class during the subject registration exercise? The Literature teacher, a flamboyant man with melancholy blonde hair tied back into a shaggy ponytail, who told everyone to call him Romero, was a nut! Outside of class and in the staff offices, he was always languid and lethargic. In class, however, he read off passages with vicious energy as he marched up and down the aisles.

You couldn't sleep in his class because he would suddenly stop at your desk, seemingly randomly (which Kai was beginning to feel was not the case at all because Romero always had a knack for stopping at the desks of those who were not paying attention), and roar a line in your face. Just the other day, they were reading _Walden_ by Henry Thoreau, and Romero had stopped by Kai's desk, when Kai was least alert, and groaned, yes groaned, in his face:

_"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."_

Worse still, Romero asked Kai, "Now, Mr. Hiwatari, what is the significance of this line?" –with a discreet glance at the corner where Kai's eyes had only been before he was interrupted—"if you don't mind sharing."

Of course, Kai did not know the significance of the line because (1) he had found the book so utterly boring that he gave up after page ten and (2) he had been staring at Tyson as the younger boy chewed the end of his pen in perusal of the open page before him. So, Kai found himself having to read the rest of the chosen passage in front of the class as punishment for not attempting his reading before class.

From up front, he could see Bryan pretending to be into his reading to avoid being picked on, Tala concentrating for real on the book _and _taking notes in the blank margins of the printed pages. Ray was looking furtively over his book at Max who was, like Bryan, pretending to read. Kai had not dared look over at one particular corner of the room where he knew a certain bluenette sat.

Right then the bluenette was standing before him, so close that Kai could detect the faint hint of a scent about him. Kai peered down at the open face, the face where he knew, every emotion could be read. However, right then, at the age this bluenette was, Kai read nothing in the face. In his own person, however, strange emotions and sensations were roiling. He could not pinpoint what they were, where they came from, or what was their source. All he knew for sure was that Tyson was saying something that sounded like:

"Dinner's ready. You're coming right?"

_And why was he holding on to that hopefulness he heard in the younger guy's voice_?

Crossing his arms nonchalantly, Kai replied, "Yeah, I'm coming."

The smile that was thrown at him next almost disarmed him. He steeled himself and walked out of the room behind Tyson.

* * *

Dinner was indeed a noisy affair. A VERY noisy affair. However, there were times during the meal when he found his eyes meeting Tyson's as the midnight-haired persona looked at Kai over all the ruckus of food snatching and talking with mouths full (namely Daichi and his abhorrent table manners), and Tyson would smile. Kai would only half-smirk in reply before turning this attention to his food.

Kai stepped out into dark night after dinner and already, the gloom and silence was getting to him. It was strange how a few hours in the Granger household could make the quiet and solitude just beyond its threshold so alien. Dinner had been...interesting. He had even had a short staring match with Daichi over who would get the last salted fish. After such an experience, he doubted he could go back to his usual dinner at the mansion, sitting at one end of a long, long table alone, the only sounds in the dining room being the clink of his silverware against the porcelain plate. The serving person would be waiting like a silent shadow, slinking forward should he want anything. It was so different from the 'help yourself' way in the Granger household, where you reach out and grab whatever dish you want. Kai had to admit that it gave him an appetite.

He had thanked the elder Granger, earning himself a "come anytime you please, ma' boy", before he stepped out. Slinging his bag across his body, he started to walk out of the grounds, hands shoved into the pockets of his school blazer.

The sound of running feet behind him stopped his own. It was oddly surreal how those footsteps held in them a warmth Kai rarely ever felt. He turned on his heels to see Tyson running towards him from the house. Had Kai forgotten something?

"Hey!" Tyson cried as he came to a halt in front of the taller young man. "I'll walk you to the gate."

"I don't need anyone walking me anywhere," Kai drawled almost against his will.

"Sure, _Miss_ Independent," Tyson answered with a grin and they started walking slowly.

Once outside, they stood facing each other in silence for a while, with Tyson smiling up at Kai.

"Somebody has grown more handsome over the years," Tyson said finally in a voice laced with amusement.

Kai felt his cheek flush and was glad for the bare bit of twilight that existed around them. This stretch of street was probably the worst lit in the whole district, not that Kai was complaining.

"Whatever," was all the reply he could muster.

"Thanks for staying over for dinner. It was great catching up with you, Kai!"

"Yeah, you too." It surprised the both of them since it came from Kai, but Tyson only ended up laughing a little.

"See you tomorrow then!"

With that, Kai nodded and turned away before heading down the street to his home. He could feel Tyson watching him go, most likely with a smile on those lips, the sight of which sometimes disconcerted him in so many odd ways. Kai kept walking slowly until he heard the door of the tall gate close and latch.

At the sound, he stopped and turned to gaze at the house.

* * *

**Next Chapter: Mud Pie**


	4. Mud Pie

**Disclaimer: **As of the first chapter. :)

**Author's Message: **Thank you all of you who encouraged me to go on. (You have amazing reading power! 100000000000 thumbs up to you guys! You guys have an immense amount of patience for story development! ^_^)

* * *

**Chapter 4: Mud pie**

**

* * *

**

Tyson surprised almost everyone in the class when he suddenly bounded up to Kai the moment Mr. Gideon called the end of chemistry class. Kai barely had his textbook closed when two tanned hands slammed onto his desktop and made him blink. He found himself looking up into a pair of familiar eyes and at an even more familiar grin.

"Walk home with me today, 'kay?" Tyson asked, although it was more of a rhetorical request than a proper option-filled question.

Kai could see many of those still remaining in the class looking over curiously, and with no small amount of shock, he might add. Tyson was probably the first...no, ONLY freshman who dared demand such a thing of Kai, and so familiarly too as though they had been chums all their lives. (Which they have...practically, but of course, no one needed to know that.) Why, even Kai's friends were shocked. Tala was frozen halfway through giving Bryan a customary after-the-last-class hug. He had his arms resting on Bryan's shoulders and was only about to pull the taller young man to him when Tyson came up to Kai the way he did.

Both the red-head and Bryan, his hair of the palest lilac, stared at Kai as if he had grown a second head. Ray was for once not being all clumsy and flustered even though Max was standing before him. Not many freshmen could talk to Kai without stuttering.

Kai lowered his gaze and made what he hoped was a good show at nonchalance as he gathered his stationery together and placed them in the pockets on the inside of his blazer.

"Hn," was all he said as he stood up.

"Cool! I'll see you later then!"

Tyson flashed him a smile that could have outdone the sun on many a summer's day before grabbing his two friends—a grinning Max (who shouted a "See ya, Ray!" as he was yanked off) and a trembling Kenny (who was scared shitless at the sight of all the bad boys of the class standing so close to him)—and making a speedy break for the door. Boy, that guy could run.

"Ah haaaaaaah!" Kai heard Tala cry. He quickly whipped his eyes away from the door through which Tyson had only darted out of and fixed the red-head with a leveled stare.

"I see that _some_one have not been telling us something," Tala continued to drawl, immune to Kai's look. Tala, Bryan, and even Ray, came up to him in record speed, plastering themselves in his personal space, and a certain red-head's voice urgently demanded, "So! He talked to you huh huh huh?"

Kai swore he never remembered Tala could be so annoying. Tala was usually bitchy, not cutesy annoying.

The dual-haired young man started to casually walk away, hands shoved inside his blazer pockets.

"Hey guys," a voice called from outside the class.

"Spencer!" Tala and Bryan greeted cheerily. "You will never guess what we just found out!"

The tall hulk of a young man came to a halt and looked at them questioningly. He was friends with all four of them—Kai, Ray, Tala and Bryan—but he didn't have many classes with them, seeing them mostly at their off-limits lunch table, during Physical Ed., CCAs, and after school.

"Don't listen to them," Kai told him as he walked past the taller figure.

Tala bounded up to Spencer and hissed conspiratorially, "Well, some_one _is actually very close to this pretty, hot guy in our class and he didn't tell any one of us."

"And that bothers you?" Kai asked over his shoulder.

"Well, well, well...it seems as if icy cold Kai Hiwatari may be able to have feelings after all," he heard Ray say with a chuckle. Everyone followed suit.

"So how close are you to that boy, Kai? Care to give details?" Bryan chimed, coming up beside Kai as they all walked towards their lockers.

"The way you people are at it, you might as well be gossipy girls," replied Kai, beginning to feel a little put off by all the attention he was getting.

"No girls in this school, so some of us have to take up the role," Tala pointed out. "Besides, this is simply being curious about a friend. Nothing wrong in that."

Kai only grunted as he stood before his locker and pulled it open after turning the right combination.

"He finally talked to me...that's all," he told them, stuffing his books in.

"So we figured, yeah," Tala said. "But from the looks of things, you guys must have talked...way before today...maybe..."—Tala leaned in closer to Kai, scrutinizing him with mock severity—"when _we _are _not _around?"

"And what is this I hear about from Bryan that he asked you to walk him home?" Spencer spoke from his own locker, which was right in between Bryan's and Ray's.

"Spencer," Kai said warningly. When madness ensued among them, Spencer was usually the calm center that Kai could turn to for some semblance of sanity but then, the taller guy only grinned.

"Yeah...that was a little sudden," this time it was Ray, the clamour of dismissal going on all around him as he closed his locker door with the usual air of peace.

"I had dinner at his house yesterday..." The moment Kai said that, he knew he was going to regret it.

Tala's eyes glinted at the piece of information, a thumb and forefinger forming a 'V' under his sharp chin.

"...with his grandfather and his adopted little brother," Kai found it necessary to add.

"HAH! A family dinner! There's something in that!" Tala burst out, casting a knowing look at Ray, who blushed and turned away.

Kai only rolled his eyes as he slammed his locker door shut.

As if to make a point to his friends, he turned his back to them and started to walk away, only to find himself looking once more into familiar eyes the colour of a stormy sea...wine...freshly-brewed tea...oh, he could never decide on which, but right then it was a warm, light-ish brown, glimmering with excitement as they stared up into his violet ones.

Tyson Granger stood before him, hands clasped behind his back, his bag slung across his lean shoulders, and lips stretched out into a smile both cheery and inviting.

"Ready, Kai?" he asked.

Before Kai could speak, Tala pushed his way to stand in front of the younger boy and was soon shaking the said boy's hand. Tyson looked up at the red-head, a little taken aback. As with all the freshmen, Tyson had not spoken to any of the "older guys who sat at the back", as the group was mostly known to be, save for Kai whom he had known for some time. He was by no means a shy boy, but something about the exclusiveness of the rebellious group kept him away. However, it seemed as if this red-headed young man was actually really friendly.

"Hey! You're Tala right?" he asked amiably.

"And you're...Tyson, aren't you?" Tala questioned him in return. "I thought you were really cute when I first saw you on the first day of school."

It was quite amusing for Tala to see the younger boy blush. There was something about the boy that quite took him, Tala mused. For one thing, those eyes...were so pretty...they looked so much like a girl's. That and the silky mane of midnight blue. The boy simply exuded a charm which all other freshmen lacked, making so little of them stand out. Tala's furtive wink at Kai clearly read, 'He's a very good catch!'

"I think you're pretty cool yourself," the bluenette replied with a smile.

"Cooler than Kai?" Tala asked a little teasingly. Kai frowned at him.

Tyson laughed at this and said, "If you meant that in terms of iciness, then no, you're not."

Tala released Tyson's hand and threw his head back in an unrestrained laugh. The others were doing the same except Kai, who could feel a vein twitching in his forehead as the others laughed at his expense...which rarely ever happened.

"Good one, Tyson! I like you already!" Tala practically shrieked over his laughter.

"Now, this is the first time we ever heard someone, besides ourselves, who could say such a thing about Kai, without being glared at to death!" Ray put in.

"I've had to deal with those probably far earlier than you guys," Tyson told them with a chuckle.

"Tyson," Kai cut in tersely through the laughter, walking away as he spoke. "Let's go."

* * *

"You have very nice friends, Kai!" Tyson remarked as they made their way down the street.

"Real nice," said Kai, oozing with sarcasm. He was still a little peeved at his friends' behaviour. He was going to be in for some teasing...for sure.

Tyson's voice grew a little quiet as he went on, "And I'm glad that you made friends, Kai. At least you are not such a loner now."

Kai turned to look at the younger boy when he heard that. Tyson was looking back at him, his lips curved into a smile that was all at once gentle and happy. Only in Tyson could Kai see someone who would feel happy for him for what he considered so trivial a matter. However, he recalled with a teeny smile of his own that Tyson was always one to make something important out of the things Kai considered trivial. Normally, he never saw the point, but Tyson could always make him see some good in it. Tala's wink could well have its worth, not that he was admitting to anything.

Suddenly, he felt Tyson take hold of his hand and then steer him away from what he knew was to be the route to both their homes. He had little time to question because he soon found himself in a playground. There were some children playing in it, their gleeful shouts, and childish taunting assaulting his ears immediately. Undeterred, Tyson pulled him into the sand-floored playground and plopped him into a vacant swing. The swing was made for children...half or a third of his age...so it was low, so low that he had to tuck his legs in under it.

"Wait here. I'll be right back," Tyson told him as he lifted the strap of his sling bag over his head and later plunking it down into Kai's lap.

"Tyson...what are you—"

Tyson was already dashing for the entrance at the whirlwind speed he was already becoming famous for.

Over a shoulder he shouted, "Don't go anywhere! Otherwise I'll beat the crap out of you tomorrow!"

Kai had no opportunity to say anything after that because Tyson disappeared behind the tall hedges which lined the street side. Not being able to do anything else, Kai sat in the swing, allowing himself to rock a little, just a little, and kick a bit of the sand with the end of his shoe. He stopped when he noticed some kids staring at him. What, with him looking profoundly out of place, of course they would stare. He sighed and found himself gazing about him, taking in the surroundings. Something about this playground seemed awfully familiar.

Not far off, Kai spotted the gates of an elementary school. His eyes widened. Elementary school had been such a thing of the past that he hardly recognized it at first. The elementary school-goers had been released and the majority of those in the playground were them.

Sounds of a scuffle caught his attention, and he noticed in a far corner a familiar little red-head wrestling a boy to the ground. At first, the red-head looked like was going to be forced out of the ring but he had squirmed himself loose of the other, burlier boy's grip and pushed his opponent right out amidst cheers and the splattering of disappointed groans.

"Aww man! I thought Daichi was going to lose for sure!" Kai heard a boy say to his companion. The boy handed the other a whole stick of gum as he made that dejected statement.

Kai smirked. Kids start gambling early... Wait, Daichi?

"Hey! It's that guy with the weird hair!"

Kai's eyes fixed on the red-head as the midget bounded up to stand in front of him, arms akimbo, and legs apart.

"Aren't you too old to be playing on the swing?" Daichi demanded loudly. Kai dug a pinky into his ear and motioned to clear it pointedly. This boy was louder than Tyson and Grandpa Granger put together. _Much _louder.

"What is it to you, twerp?"

"You aren't waiting for your girlfriend aren't ya?" Daichi demanded, and then grinned maddeningly before clasping his hands and widening his eyes to sickeningly huge proportions, all sparkles with surrounding opalescent flowers to boot. "Waiting for her so that you can tell her you _wuv_ her?"

"She just ran out to get something," Kai heard himself say.

He immediately did a mental double take after that came out of his mouth. It was a little disconcerting how that line brought to his mind Tyson running out of the playground, the way he had earlier.

Trying not to think of it, Kai did the next best thing: he narrowed his eyes menacingly at Daichi.

Something of Tyson must have rubbed off Daichi. Either that, or the little boy was brought up by wolves before the Grangers adopted him because he only replied, unaffected by the stare, "Ah! Whatever! I need to go home and help Grandpa with dinner, since Tyson isn't going to be home for it today."

Kai frowned. If Tyson was not going to be home for dinner...that meant Tyson was planning on staying out?

"What did Tyson told you he was going to be doing?" Kai asked.

Daichi shrugged.

"Dunno. Said he had something important to do, and he won't say anything else after that."

"Anyway, my friends are going! I'm off. See ya, weirdo!"

Kai raised an eyebrow but said nothing as he watched the boy hurry after his friends. Who would have thought that he would meet Tyson's little brother here? And when did the little boy get there anyway? How long had Tyson been gone? It felt like a long, long time... and yet, no time at all. The sky was already obtaining a peachy hue about it. All of this was too familiar...down to the time of day. All it needed was for Tyson to...

"So! Have you figured it out yet?" Tyson's voice came to him and the running teen soon came to a halt before him, hands behind his back.

"This is the playground that we used to fight in," Kai responded with a little smile. He did not want to mention that it took him a while.

"Correct!" Tyson chirped before asking again, "And the day is?"

Kai frowned up at Tyson but was suddenly taken by how beautiful Tyson looked then. His hair, so much longer than it used to be was falling over one shoulder and since Tyson was bending down a little to lean towards him, the ponytail hung down, swaying with every little move that the bluenette made. The excitement he felt was laid bare in the way his eyes glimmered.

"The day?" Kai asked somewhat puzzled and distractedly.

"All these years and you never bothered remembering?"

"Remembering what?"

"Let me refresh your memory, gramps!" Tyson teased, pulling something out from behind his back. Pushing a disposable cake tin practically under Kai's nose, Tyson shouted gleefully as he peeled off the aluminum foil which covered it, "Happy birthday, Kai!"

Kai stared down at the object in astonishment. Memories already etched into his mind came flooding back fresher than ever, only this time, it did not smell like dirt. Something dark, smelling like chocolate was packed into the simple round aluminum cake tin. The top, slightly bulging out above the level of the rim, had multicoloured M&Ms arranged to spell his name...properly: "Kai". Two candles protruded out of the whole simple set-up and Tyson fished inside his blazer pockets until he came up with a lighter.

"I saw a recipe for mud pie that does not require ice-cream...so I tried it and this is the best one yet!" Tyson told him excitedly as he placed the dessert, not a very big one, onto Kai's lap. "I ran home to get it because I didn't want to bring it to school."

Kai watched, effectively speechless, as Tyson knelt down and lighted the candles after flicking the lighter inexpertly a few times. Once the candles were lighted, Tyson lifted a rapturous face, all aglow with the flickering light from the candles, to Kai. Soon, he was belting out in a "Happy Birthday" song. Normally, Kai would have been annoyed by something so pointless and embarrassing...but Tyson was doing everything so sincerely and eagerly, he could not help but sink into it, perhaps even appreciate it. There was a spreading warmth somewhere in him, what many would perhaps describe as a fuzzy sort of feeling in the depths of his being.

Kai remembered what sort of effect the boy's similar gesture had on him so many years back...and it was doing the same thing then. Tyson had always remembered Kai's birthday but never once told the latter his own. Kai remembered that he had to actually badger it out of the teachers (true Hiwatari style) before he found out, only to mail the gifts he bought to the younger boy instead of giving it to him in person. Tyson always thanked him for it in school. So it was like that, Kai mailing stuff and Tyson giving him odd trinkets, like fix-it-yourself figurines from those toy dispenser machines where you slot in coins to get those toys in little globes, for a straight five years or so. Their gifts were nothing big...but Kai would never ever admit to anyone that he kept all of the things Tyson gave him, even if they were those girly miniature furniture sets.

After Tyson suddenly left, Kai felt no need to acknowledge birthdays anymore, not even his own. The two most important dates in his life simply sunk into a quagmire of forgotten memories. That was until Tyson came bouncing back into his life and went all out to remind him what once was, what life perhaps meant. All those years apart and Tyson never forgot...only waited for the day.

"C'mon, Kai! Make a wish and blow out the candles!" Tyson's voice pierced through his reveries.

Kai started a little, looking wide-eyed first at the younger teen and then down at the candles.

"Clasp your hands like this, close your eyes, and make a wish!"

Tyson did exactly as he himself had instructed and was soon a divine picture as he knelt before Kai. Those pretty eyes blissfully closed, the hands clasped fervently to his chest, and with that smile, Kai felt this very strange pull to lean in and...

Kai pulled himself back with a harsh, mental yank just as Tyson opened his eyes again.

"It's really easy!" Tyson urged, reaching out and grabbing Kai's hands, pulling them together before intertwining the fingers into a clasp.

The touch of Tyson's hand on his shocked Kai, and he could feel his heart jump before settling into a wild hammering in his ribcage. At Tyson's continued insistence, he closed his eyes, however more to _not_ look into that rapturous face than to make a genuine wish.

_This is pointless_, Kai found himself thinking.

Somewhere in the back of his mind though, he was actually wondering what he should wish for. It was easy to simply put on a show of making a wish and then opening his eyes and blowing out the candles before taking the cake home and instructing the servants to put it in the fridge. Only he didn't. He was actually pondering over the one thing he would want to come true. It was no easy task because Tyson's face kept surfacing in his mind, smiling at him—little Tyson with no front teeth, a slightly older Tyson just on the cusp of teenagehood, and the current Tyson, a young man of seventeen.

Finally, Kai gave up and spoke out loud that he wished he would get an 'A+' for the upcoming Math test.

"You are not supposed to say it out loud! Or else it won't come true!" Tyson shouted at him. "And now, blow out all the candles in one breath! Blow!"

There was so much urgency in Tyson's voice that Kai actually felt like he ought to comply otherwise something bad was going to happen. He opened his eyes and blew out the candles easily in a single puff for there were only two of them.

"I'm not twenty," Kai pointed out, looking down at the pink candles. _Pink_?!

"You will be in two years," Tyson reasoned. With a laugh, he added, pulling them out, "Well, I wanted to put eighteen on this...but Grandpa said it might burn such a tiny cake down. It is rather tiny, isn't it?"

Tyson inspected the cake as he said so. It was bigger than a muffin but not quite the size of a regular pie.

Before he could stop himself, Kai actually found himself consoling, "It is just the right size for us."

"Aww! That's cool!" Fishing in his bag, which he had grabbed from Kai before placing the cake on the other's lap, he brought out a packet of serviettes and a butter knife with triumph.

"You really thought of everything didn't you?" Kai asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Mm hmm!"

It was hard not to keep down the rising blush as Tyson thrust the knife into his hand and guided it to cut the first slice of the cake, all the while kneeling before him. Kai realised that if it wasn't for the cake on his lap, their position would seem rather...compromising.

Once the slice was on the serviette that Tyson had readied for it, Kai took his first bite out of it in the midst of Tyson's anxiously watching eyes. Kai had to avert his own eyes as he chewed, feeling a little put off by his...sudden shyness. Why was he feeling so... And only with this bluenette too? This was seriously not flattering to his reputation as the school's resident bad boy.

"How...is it?" Tyson asked hesitantly.

"It's fine," Kai told him curtly, still not looking at him.

"Phew, at least that's something," replied Tyson with a grin.

Kai profoundly felt what a liar he was. It was actually the best thing he had ever tasted.

* * *

"Oh! And before I forgot!" Tyson cried out just as they stopped at the gate to his house.

The bluenette probed about in his bag until he came up with a little brown package.

Handing it to Kai, he said, "Here!"

"What is it?" Kai asked, taking the package from his friend.

"The limited edition dresser to the furniture set I gave you a long time ago."

Kai was glad for the bad lighting once more for he felt his cheeks flush tellingly. How did the younger teen know that Kai still kept those things? And how did he know that Kai was missing a dresser for the bedroom set?

"You can expect the dining room set for your birthday next year!" Tyson joked.

"Why are all your gifts so pointless?" Kai asked.

"Because you lack pointlessness in your life," Tyson told him with a laugh.

"And this coming from someone who aces Literature?"

Tyson started to push the tall wooden gates open as he turned and spoke, "It is human to make pointless things have a point."

Kai stared at the bluenette after he made that statement and actually found himself smiling.

"I hate to admit it, but you have a point," he said finally.

"See you tomorrow, Kai! And better get that reading done. You don't want Romero to start picking on you to read up front again."

"I'm way ahead of you, Tyson."

Light laughter tinkled, as Kai heard the bluenette ask, "What? Reading or in pretending to read?"

Kai smirked and turned to walk away. The gate closed behind him and he felt it safe to open the package and take out the dresser. It even came with drawers that could be pulled out and a small mirror.

Kai shoved the gift back into its package and the package into his bag before he could see himself in the mirror.

* * *

**Next Chapter: Looking For a Juliet**


	5. Looking for a Juliet

**Disclaimer: **As of the first chapter.

**Author Notes: **Let us all breathe a collective sigh of relief: the story is finally taking a turn for the main event.

**Warnings: **The Drama Club President enters. (Not in a bad way, no.)

* * *

**Chapter 5: Looking for a Juliet**

**

* * *

**

The buzz in the classroom immediately died when Romero stepped in. He always had that sort of effect on people. On top of that, he didn't step in alone. Behind him, walking in a manner that would have made Robert's gait pale in comparison was a young man with a head of fiery red-orange hair and a single golden loop on his ear. He had about him an air of serenity and his lips were curved into a languid smile. The Drama Club President certainly knew a thing or two about bringing the theatre with you everywhere and was constantly set on having some sort of effect on the people around him.

To Tala and co. he was simply plain annoying. Not that he cared for what other people thought anyway, for his head was always on an invisible stage that he brought around with him everywhere. The moment he walked through the threshold of the door to the classroom, practically all eyes were on him, wondering who he was and what was his business there. Tala looked back at Bryan and made a face. Kai, admittedly unconcerned about the young man, kept his arms crossed over his chest and retained that practiced look of bored indifference.

Romero stopped before the class and announced, "To all the freshmen here, may I introduce to you this fine gentleman who is the President of our school's own Drama Club: Brooklyn."

Said person stepped forward and afforded himself a gallant bow which owed him an involuntary, though hesitant, round of applause.

Straightening up, he said to Romero, "You flatter me, sir."

"As much as I know all of you are eager to begin our class,"---a very quiet moan of denial washed through the class---"Brooklyn is here to share with you something about an upcoming Drama Club event. Perhaps, Brooklyn," Romero said, looking over at the young man, "you would prove to be a better person to tell them about it?"

Brooklyn nodded at the teacher and smiled.

"A pleasure," he replied. Turning to the class, he smiled again. Of course, no one smiled back but he was unfazed.

"As some of you, eager to join the Drama Club, may have noticed, we did not have the usual auditions for recruitment this year…"

Tala hissed, more to himself than anybody, "That's 'cause no one signed up for auditions."

Bryan snickered at that, Ray 'ahem'-ed with subdued mirth, and even Kai smirked a little.

"I sincerely apologize to those you who are eager to join us, but...the Drama Club have decided to do a talent scouting among all the junior classes."

No one said a word as Brooklyn went on to explain about the club before finally delving into the reason as to why he had come to make a personal appearance.

"For the main event of the college's Arts Festival, we are going to be staging the age old Shakespeare tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Currently, the Drama Club already has all the characters we need, but the star spot for one of the main characters, we have decided to give it to one of you juniors. Where better to find such a person for the part than in a literature class eh?"

"So...which character is it?" someone asked from up front the moment Brooklyn paused to let all he had said sink in.

Brooklyn smiled at the person with a sort of knowing glint in his eyes and replied simply with effect, "Juliet."

There was a deadened silence for the next few minutes before a contrasting roar of laughter rang through the room.

"But we're all guys!" someone piped up.

Brooklyn's expression still retained that look of patient bemusement. He shared a look with Romero who rolled his eyes with an elegant wave of his hand.

Romero straightened up from his half-leaning position by the desk and went up to the front of the class.

"Gentlemen, I do not see what is so funny!" he spoke up, silencing the class immediately. "During Shakespeare's time, women were not allowed to act on stage. So all the parts were played by men!"

"And I am sure someone in this room is more than fully qualified to play the part of the lovely Juliet," Brooklyn said next, looking about the room.

Bryan poked Tala from behind, causing the red-head to whisper sharply, "I like _reading _literature, not act in one!"

Bryan snickered behind his hand.

And so, with a significant amount of complaints from the "manliest" of men in the class, the readings for the part of Juliet began.

Kai was the one to get it all started. No, not because he volunteered. He's too cool for that. Kai had simply made a sound that suspiciously sounded to Romero's trained ears like a snort of disdain and had thus been called upon to read a line from one of Juliet's parts in the play. Kai coolly stood, sauntered up to the front of the classroom, hands in the pockets of his blazer, with his book nowhere in sight, and recited an extremely bad rendition of Juliet's famous, "Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo" and went back to his seat the same way he came.

When he sat down, he turned to see all of his friends staring at him with a twitch in the sides of their faces.

"Man," Ray finally spoke up. "You suck."

Kai did not reply, only curled up one end of his lips before settling back into his chair.

After Kai, everyone had the misfortune to try, well, except for Tala who nicely pointed out of his being in favour of critical study of a piece of literature, the academic nature of which would render him utterly incapable of producing any sort of effect on stage. Romero smiled at the red-head and turned to the next person in line for the mini-audition, who, unfortunately, was Bryan. Not even Tala's casual pinch on his butt could make an actor out of him.

Brooklyn sitting in his corner was losing hope of ever finding the right Juliet. None of the guys in the class were right for the part. Not all of them were brusque, but those who were genteel did not have the right flare—that eye-catching something that could make a man's heart turn somersaults when his eyes first catch sight of the person. Oh wait…perhaps, he had been too preoccupied with the mini-audition up front. For there was that someone right there, sitting in his corner, watching everything that was going on with wide, interested eyes. Eyes that were chocolate-hued and innocent, silky mane falling into them, and when the young man smiled, yes, he smiled at the blond behind him once during the audition, at the point when Brooklyn was watching; it was something to see how the smile immediately touched those eyes.

If that had been Juliet, any Romeo would say what he said when he first laid eyes on her. If that had been Juliet, any Romeo would gladly impale himself with his sword if she'd ask him to (no...no wait, that was a different tragedy or was it?).

Romero was saying something to the class about speeding things up but paused midway in his speech and the class subsequently went silent when Brooklyn suddenly leaped to his feet and marched up to Tyson Granger.

"You!" he said, jabbing a finger at Tyson, leaving only a hair's breadth of space between that finger and Tyson's nose. Tyson could only lean back and stare down the bridge of his nose at that finger. "You will be perfect!"

"Me?"

"Why didn't I ask you to come forward sooner?" Brooklyn went on. Turning to Romero, he asked, "Shall we let him try?"

"Why...of course...if no one objects. Some of you have not had your turn."

Romero looked about the class but no one protested. There were some who were even shaking their heads, their eyes wide, glad for anything that would get them out of auditioning. Romero looked at Kenny shivering behind his text and then at Max, who met his eyes but shook his head vigorously as an added response. With a shrug and raised brows, Romero gestured for Tyson to come forward.

Kai watched with a strange sense of…something…roiling in the pits of his being as Brooklyn latched a hand around Tyson's slender wrist and hoisted the young man to his feet. All Kai could focus on was that hand around Tyson's wrist as Tyson frantically told Brooklyn that he would be bad at it. However, Brooklyn was insistent and Tyson soon stood before the class amidst a rousing round of bawdy hoots and catcalls. While Kai made a mental note to kill all those perverts in his class, Tyson rolled his eyes at his excited classmates and started to read the part in the play which Brooklyn had specifically asked him to read. It was the last part of the play where Juliet took Romeo's dagger and made ready to kill herself.

When Tyson started, the catcalls were killed in everybody's throat. No one expected Tyson to be so…good. Without being told to, he'd been able to lighten his voice to a husky, perfectly androgynous voice, adding new dimensions to the role of Juliet that could be read in so many ways. (As Tala sat and mused.)

The whole class was silent as Tyson read the part. Brooklyn listened rapturously while Romero leaned back into his chair at the teacher's desk with his eyes closed and a smile playing across his lips as if he knew something all along. Kai actually listened, for the first time in literature class, and watched with almost stunned regard as Tyson went about Juliet's final speech. His heart gave a jolt that he found hard to ignore when Tyson let out a final cry, indicating the moment when Juliet plunged the dagger into herself. It was not in the play, but Tyson enacted it well, and it was only verbally.

When Tyson finished, almost everyone in the class applauded, the catcalls returning to grate on Kai's nerves once more. Tyson up front held up the thumbs up sign and winked. He had to admit that despite feeling a little like a fool for acting so ardently, he liked the applause he was getting. Romero clapped daintily, knowing all along they had a Juliet in the pretty boy, but Brooklyn shot up from his seat and drew Tyson into an embrace, surprising the younger man.

"Finally! I thought I would never find you!" he cried, crushing Tyson to his chest.

Tala rolled his eyes; trust Brooklyn to bring theatricality to the lower masses. He looked over at Kai sitting beside him to convey his dislike for the Drama Club President but stopped when he saw how tensely Kai was seated in his chair, despite the latter's attempt to cover it up with his usual, cross-armed indifference. Tala's attention returned to the scene in front of the class, at Tyson appearing as if he was having the life squeezed out of him by Brooklyn's embrace, then turned back to Kai. Tala allowed himself a little smile and turned back to the front.

In that moment, held so tightly by Brooklyn, Tyson found himself looking over at Kai across the room. Their eyes met for a short, extremely short while before Kai dropped his eyes to the top of his desk. Tyson dislodged himself from Brooklyn and looked up at the taller man.

"Does that mean…" he began hesitantly.

"Rehearsals start soon, my dear."

—A vein in Kai's forehead popped.—

* * *

After the whole mini-audition, Romero assigned the class' project for the semester. He gave two choices: Either they could actively get involved in the Drama Club's production by being part of the backstage crew or write research essays on some of the texts that have been covered in the class.

Then, class was dismissed, a whole half an hour early.

Kai only spent enough time to see the whole roomful of boys surge towards Tyson once Romero called dismissal and hear someone say to Tyson, "Boy Tyson, I bet you look hot in a dress on stage. I can entertain myself with that thought at night already!" After that, Kai was out of the room followed by Tala and the others.

Tyson stood on tiptoe amidst his newfound crowd of admirers just in time to see Kai's back sidle out of the classroom. He dropped back into the center of the crowd and smiled at those talking to him, not really hearing what they were saying.

"C'mon, Kai! I saw that face in class. You hated the way Brooklyn was all over Tyson," Tala pressed, invading Kai's personal space terribly by standing far too close. Kai was backed up uncomfortably against his locker as Tala pushed his face still nearer.

Feeling a rising blush, one he didn't expect to be there seeing no cause for it, Kai abruptly turned around and tried to open the door of his locker. However, Tala was not one to let anyone get away too easily.

"You know, Kai," Tala hissed darkly into Kai's ear. "I will try not to bring up this matter anymore after this, since it is a matter of the heart after all, and all men need to discover it for themselves. But I will say this one thing before I lay off you: You like this boy."

Pulling himself away from Kai's back, Tala added with a grin, "Why, you might even be in love with him."

"I don't _do _love," Kai retorted coldly, glad for the breathing space.

"No one is asking you to _do, _Kai," Bryan, who had been watching, put in. "Just to fall in it."

Tala turned to his boyfriend then and cried, "Why Bryan! That is the most romantic thing I have EVER heard coming from you!"

Kai stalked off, leaving the lovebirds and his gawking bevy of friends---Ray and Spencer---to head for the next class with his hands in his pockets and his books tucked under one arm.

Just a few steps around the corner, Kai heard someone run up to him and later slow down to match his gait which had not faltered one bit.

Ray smiled over at his friend and spoke up, "You know, Kai, I have a problem telling Max exactly how I feel about him."

"Your point, Kon?" Kai asked irritably, not turning.

The other chuckled and said, "Maybe you are the same way."

Kai stopped in the middle of the hallway, after which Ray did the same, and faced his friend squarely.

"I am not like you," he articulated.

Ray picked up the pace again, this time breaking into a light jog towards his next class. Looking jovially over his shoulder at the still-standing Kai, he shouted, "Yeah, buddy. You may not be like me…but I know you well enough to be able to tell that you tend to be meaner when you are uncertain about something!"

Kai stared after Ray's quickly receding back, wondering at the latter's observation. His eyes suddenly caught the sight of a familiar head of midnight blue headed his way amongst a crowd of boys and, without thinking, he darted into the nearest classroom. He stared at the door, listening till he was certain that the group had moved away. He cursed himself inwardly. He didn't know why his breathing was so strained, why his heart beat the way it did—so fast, so urgently. He felt suffocated and all this because Tyson and his friends were walking past?

"Uh, young man?" The voice from behind him made him turn.

On doing so, he found, to his horror, that he was standing at the door of a classroom, filled with students who had looked up from their books, those bored snapped out of their boredom entirely. The teacher, the one who had spoken, stared at him strangely, holding an open book in his hand, having been interrupted so violently from his lecturing.

"Are you...from this class?" he asked eventually.

"Um, no…" Kai managed to utter before darting out of the classroom the same way he came in, only, then, he could hear the titters going around the students in the class.

Damn, that was embarrassing, he thought as he hurried to his next class.

* * *

**Next Chapter: A Lonely Mansion's Visitor**


	6. Special

**Romeo and Juliet **

**By William Shakespeare**

Staged and performed by Jurgen's College Drama Club

Directed by Romero, teacher-in-charge

Co-directed by Brooklyn, club president

-----------

-----------

Persons of the play:

The house of Capulet

Lord Capulet (Richard Zenith)

Lady Capulet (Matthew Rossman)

**Juliet (Tyson Granger)**

**Tybalt (Garland Siebald)**

**Nurse (Oliver Polanski)**

Cousin Capulet (Jeremy Fergaro)

Peter (Andrew Yorkes)

Sampson (Dante Alighieri Malluvia)

Gregory (Cornelius M. Edwards)

------------

------------

The house of Montague

Lord Montague (Marshal Evans)

Lady Montague (Donny Yong)

**Romeo (Brooklyn Masefield)**

**Benvolio (Raul Fernandez)**

Balthasar (C.J. Lim)

Abraham (Milde Repeator)

----------

----------

The Prince's Household 

Prince Escalus (Hethias Myrias)

**Mercutio (Mystel)**

**Paris (Kane Yamashita)**

Mercutio's Page (Anderson)

Paris' Page ("Yoru" Kinomoto)

----------

----------

Others

**Friar Lawrence (Miguel)**

Friar John (Nelson Hewitt)

**Apothecary (Claude)**

Three Watchmen

Three Musicians

The Chorus

Citizens

Party Guests

Pages

Servants

Attendants


	7. A Lonely Mansion's Visitor

**Disclaimer: **As of first chapter.

**Warnings: **More meals.

* * *

**Chapter 6: A Lonely Mansion's Visitor**

**

* * *

**

Kai adjusted the collar of his polo tee as he traipsed lightly down the flight of marble steps to the front door. He had only pulled on a knitted vest over the polo tee right at the moment the doorbell rang below. Since he had been on his way out of his room to his study, he decided that he might as well answer it.

He was nearly at the foot of the stairs when he saw his butler, Albert, who had been with him for as long as he could remember, making his way to the door.

"It's okay, Albert," he called out from where he was still descending the stairs. "I'll get it."

Stopping and smiling at his young master, knowing that there was no use in trying to argue against it, Albert replied with a slight bow, "I will see to dinner then, Master Hiwatari."

Kai made his way briskly to the door, frowning as he went. "Albert, how many times must I tell you to call me 'Kai'?"

"I do not allow myself such improprieties, sir," Albert said.

Even without looking, Kai could see the smile on Albert's face just from the tone of his voice. This was the man who had been with him since he was old enough to live in the Hiwatari second mansion. As much as Kai was all the relation he had contact with, for some reason, the elder Hiwatari couldn't stand having the boy around. As a result, Kai was pretty much his own man in his own estate, (though he did not technically own it), from the time in his life that he could remember.

Albert was his one companion, always there even as servants come and go, having their own lives to lead. Albert and Portia the cook to be exact, only as Kai was not much of an eater, he was not entirely close to the latter. Albert always knew how to deal with Kai, always knew when the young man needed his presence and when he needed to be alone. Often times Kai felt Albert could read him like an open book no matter how much he tried to hide himself behind a stone cold façade. Sometimes, that frustrated Kai, but others, it relieved him, made him thankful.

Kai grunted out a characteristic, "Hn" which Albert managed to interpret perfectly and smiled at his master's back as it stopped at the door.

The door swung back at Kai's easy ministrations and the young man almost reeled back when he saw who it was standing at his door step on that Friday evening. Kai was not ready to deal with him yet, not after what the he had done to Kai's senses, emotions and anatomy just earlier that day after the deal with Brooklyn.

Yet, there Tyson Granger was, standing at the top of the marble steps of the lavish Hiwatari second mansion, dressed not in his school uniform, but a long-sleeved shirt that was far too short for him, too short since it exposed just a LITTLE line of flesh right over the top of his dark slim jeans, with a boat neck that showed just about enough collar bones to make _any_one distracted.

Kai's first thoughts of the matter strangely was not on what he was supposed to do now that Tyson was standing at his door smiling up at him like that with hands behind his back, rather how many people must have leered at Tyson when the younger man was on his way to the mansion. (When have Tyson started wearing those things anyway? he wondered with growing panic.)

"Tyson!" Kai was unable to keep the shock out of his voice as he tried to say the other's name. Much to Kai's growing mortification, he sensed Albert peering at Tyson over his shoulder and the curiosity oozing out from his butler.

Kai drew a deep breath which he prayed was subtle enough for Albert not to notice. Not a chance, Albert looked at him right at the moment and he swore his most dedicated servant was connecting some dots in his head.

"Tyson, what are you doing here?" Kai demanded, a little too hastily.

"What a way to treat a visitor!" Tyson teased, leaning forward far too close to Kai for the latter to take it calmly. "May I come in?"

That smile and that tone were too teasing, in all the wrong ways, Kai realized. He could not trust himself to speak, not when his focus kept returning to that neck and then that slightly exposed mid-riff. Sure Tala wore worse stuff than that, but this was Tyson, Tyson! His old school mate, his playground fighter buddy when they were kids…the kid who was stupid enough to make Kai a REAL mudpie?

Albert, sensing with bemusement his master's sudden discomfort, saved Kai from speaking.

"The young master rarely has visitors and never knew how to entertain them," he said, stepping up beside Kai to hold the door open for the bluenette to enter. "Usually, we only get salesmen."

Tyson walked into the mansion as he looked up at the butler and replied, "You get those too? We get a lot of them back home! Good thing we have Daichi to get rid of those persistent ones."

"Daichi?" Albert asked, looking down interestedly at the mention of the name.

Tyson laughed and said, "Yeah. He's my little brother."

Albert looked down at the bluenette and noted immediately how different he was from his young master. The young man that had just arrived had a way of drawing people to him with smiles that touched those chocolate eyes, and making them feel right at ease with his easy chatter. It had not escaped Albert how the visitor had been so comfortable with his young master from the beginning. Surely he was not someone Kai had only met and surely, from that sudden loss of the usually calm, almost cold manner of speech, to that furious blush he was trying to hide by standing in the shadows, surely, this young man meant more to Master Kai than just a mere friend.

Bending a little to look at the young man closer, Albert mused, rubbing his jaw, "You look familiar somehow…"

"I remember you!" Tyson cried excitedly, jumping a little. "You are Albert aren't you? Kai's butler? You have been around since always!" Extending a hand to the older man, Tyson added, "I'm sorry. Let me introduce myself. I'm Tyson Granger."

Albert had been surprised at first at Tyson knowing his name, but as the young man mentioned his full name, a grin broke out across his face as he took the hand offered.

"Mr. Granger! Why of course!" Albert cried, his eyes all crinkled up with his grin as he pumped Tyson's hand up and down in the air. "I remember you now! You are that rascal who always beat up Master Kai when he was a boy."

"He didn't _always _beat me up, Albert," Kai spoke up from his corner in the shadows. "I beat him more times than he beat me."

Tyson, whose hand by this time had been released threw a playful punch on Kai's rigid arm and playfully said, "Yeah! You wish, Kai!"

They bickered a bit---Tyson shouting things and Kai dishing out his words with little perceived emotion---while Albert watched unobtrusively by the side. Yes, this was the boy with whom Master Kai was always fighting with in the past, yet, Albert remembered that his young master _enjoyed _the trysts. They were something he actually looked forward to everyday. Yet to say that it was anything aggressive was not entirely fair…for Master Kai still kept all those birthday presents from the boy, still kept that plant in that particular pot of soil… It was not difficult to see how Master Kai was currently looking at the young man, and he was hiding it badly too. Perhaps, Master Kai was seeking something else, something he was afraid to seek, something he didn't even know he was seeking in the first place, in this young man.

Albert allowed himself a smile before saying, "Perhaps the sitting room is a better place to have your conversation, Master Kai."

"A sitting room? For him?" Kai said, indicating Tyson with a jerk of his head and a smirk.

"You have a sitting room? Does it have a television?" Tyson asked, suddenly excited.

"No, the television would be in the recreation room, Tyson," was Kai's reply, as he pushed his hands into the pockets of his pants and started to walk away from the door.

Tyson pouted and frowned, trotting to catch up with Kai while Albert followed at an easy gait.

"What is the sitting room for, then?"

"Just as its name says, genius," Kai said, breathing out a smile. "To sit."

They came to a door which, upon Albert's push, revealed the mansion's sitting room; high ceiling and a collection of antique-looking plush chairs arranged around a polished round coffee table of the same antiquity. Tyson gawked at the room, afraid to step in, in case he tread dirt across the carpet.

Kai had already casually walked into the room when he realized that the bluenette was no longer by his side. Stopping, he turned with his hands still in his pockets, and saw Tyson still by the door beside Albert, taking in his surroundings with the same open-mouthed reverence of a child in a newfangled toy store. The image of Tyson like that, admiring his simple sitting room, struck something in Kai, made him look as well and made him see that room anew… Kai saw, then, his privilege, his wealth. This room was lavish compared to what Tyson had been used to. It was probably as big as Tyson's living room and kitchen put together. Kai looked back at Tyson and thought if he was going to ask—

"Hey Kai! What does your bathroom look like?"

—what his bathroom looked like.

Kai could not keep down the light chuckle, a sound that took even Albert by surprise.

"You are so predictable, Tyson," he said, smirking. "I knew you were going to ask that. Shall I give you a guided tour?"

Tyson crossed his arms over his chest and stuck out a tongue at the dual-haired man before saying, "Hardy har har, Mister Hiwatari. Perhaps someday but that is not what I am here for today."

Albert pushed lightly on Tyson's back and told the bluenette, "May I suggest that you actually enter and _sit _in Master Kai's sitting room?"

Resisting the push, Tyson looked up uncertainly at the butler before saying with the tip of a finger resting on his lower lip, "Uh, I don't think I ought to. The carpet looks so clean…I don't know what I stepped into on my way here."

Kai thought that the uncertain gesture looked cute, too cute, but stopped himself in time to say sarcastically as he settled in a chair, "Well, you didn't stink more than you usually do, so I can be assured you didn't step into any sort of shit on your way here."

Glaring at the master of the house, Tyson strode into the room and following Kai's lead, plunked himself into the chair right across from Kai. Kai realized that Tyson didn't stink, not that the young man was always smelly or anything, but Tyson smelled rather nice…

"Fancy sitting room," Tyson commented appraisingly. Turning to Kai he added with a teasing smile, "But shouldn't you be playing the perfect host and offer me a drink?"

Kai smirked and leaned an elbow on the arm of the chair he was sitting on.

"I gotta admit, Tyson, you are one tough customer. So what will it be? Tea?"

"English style, with milk and sugar if you please," Tyson replied in the same teasing tone.

"Tea for the lady, Albert," Kai called out to his butler, playfully using the term 'lady'.

Albert was a little startled when Kai called out to him. He had been preoccupied with watching the banter that went on between the two. He had never seen Master Kai so…playful with anyone. Sure he did joke with his closest friends—Tala, Bryan, Ray, Spencer occasionally—but this, with the way the two were looking at each other, even as every word was spiced with mirth or the slightest aggression, had a flirty feel about it. Seeing Master Kai with his friends always made Albert feel happy, but seeing Master Kai with this young man made Albert feel…warm and glad, even if it seemed that Master Kai not only swung _that way _but may not realize his feelings just yet. Neither of them did. Neither.

"Albert?"

Smiling at the young master, Albert extended a small piece of card he had been holding to Kai and replied, "Indeed sir, but dinner needs to be prepared and this is today's dinner menu."

Kai reached out and took the card from Albert. Glancing cursorily at it, he said, handing the card back, "The usual. Nothing sweet for my drink."

Tyson was gawking properly.

When the two occupants of the room turned to him, he blurted out in wonder, "You have menus for dinner?"

"And what about you, young man?" Albert asked him in turn, the amusement never leaving his eyes. "What would you like for dinner?"

Tyson blushed and ducked his head before murmuring, "I don't want to intrude…"

"Tyson Granger shy? Never thought I would see the day," Kai sniggered, though secretly, even if he would not admit it to himself, relishing that expression.

"I don't think I will stay long enough for dinner."

"Call your grandfather and Daichi, tell them you will be having dinner here. Do you have a cell?" Even Kai was surprised at how spontaneously he had said that. Was he so eager to have the bluenette for dinner? Gathering his scattered self about him, he added hastily, "I had dinner at your place after all."

Still Tyson tried to argue—"I…"—only to have his words cut off by a resounding growl from his stomach. That settled it, Tyson was to stay for dinner, convinced finally into doing so by Albert's ardent insistence.

"The cook will be pleased," Albert finished.

Tyson hesitatingly took the menu and looked at it. He couldn't understand almost everything that was written on the menu card. He glanced at Kai with the intention of seeking help, but seeing the smug look on Kai's face, he stubbornly thought against it.

Turning to Albert, he asked, "Um…anything with chicken?"

Albert pointed to an item on the card and explained to him patiently what exactly it was. Tyson immediately ordered it. As he was about to hand the menu back to Albert, the butler asked whether he wanted any drinks or desserts to go with his meal. At the word dessert, Tyson's eyes lighted up.

"You mean, like chocolate?"

"You like chocolate, Tyson?" Albert queried interestedly.

"He's a garbage can, Albert," Kai informed from his seat. "He eats anything."

"I so am not," Tyson retorted heatedly, then said to Albert, "But anything chocolate is certainly my favourite! What do you have?"

Kai rolled his eyes and watched as Tyson went about an agonizing decision-making over which chocolate dessert to order. Kai leaned his cheek on a loose fist, elbow on the armrest and watched his butler explain desserts and made recommendations to the increasingly excited bluenette. In that moment Kai found himself drifting off, not something he was wont to do, and thinking of what it would be like to have Tyson live in the mansion with him. He imagined running feet down normally silent hallways, and that voice filling in the hush that always materialized in the mansion's. Tyson would be able to appreciate Portia's culinary skills better than he could. Tyson would love all the chocolate desserts she had made for Kai in the bid to entice his bland appetite.

It was strange how he wanted to make Tyson…happy. How he wanted to see that smile over and over again; that pout and that frown repeatedly; hear that voice, even if it was shouting at him, everyday.

He was getting a little annoyed, perhaps more at himself than at Tyson's inane fuss over chocolate desserts.

"Just ask Portia to prepare everything chocolate on the menu, Albert," he said a little irritably.

Albert smiled, nodded and briskly left the room. Downstairs, Albert announced grandly (and slyly) that Master Kai had a very important guest and called for the necessary preparations to be made—candlelight, the best silverware and china, no alcohol because he did not encourage drinking at such a young age—sending the mansion servants in a flurry of activity. Portia gawked at the order for a good while before folding up her sleeves and bustling about the kitchen, determined to prepare everything to perfection. She was a weak woman for desserts and loved even more to prepare them. Not even Master Kai's friends showed this much interest in chocolate desserts.

Back in the room, Tyson turned to Kai and asked incredulously, "_All _the chocolate desserts? Isn't that a bit too much?"

"Don't tell me you would have it any other way?" Kai shot back, leaning back into his chair with a smirk.

Tyson rolled his eyes and proceeded to stare down at the pile of stipulated papers on his lap. The gesture turned Kai's attention to the papers and it brought him back to the ever present question of the reason behind Tyson's visit.

"Why are you here, Tyson?"

Tyson peered back up and blinked.

"If I tell you that I came here to visit an old friend would you believe me?"

Kai raised an eyebrow, not once taking his cheek from his hand.

His companion went on, "I am here to visit an old friend."

"Tyson…" Kai said warningly.

"And I have a favour to ask."

Kai felt something inside him sink a little.

"But what I said earlier about wanting to see you is not a lie."

"Tyson…" he said again, narrowing his eyes.

"Now, Mister Hiwatari, would you like to get good credits for Literature class without having to toil through essays and research work?" Tyson asked, making it sound like a sales pitch.

"What are you saying, Granger?"

Tyson leaned back in his chair with an air of business-like professionalism. He was already quite an actor.

"You could involve yourself in the drama production," he suggested.

Kai emanated a sound that sounded like a snort and a laugh.

"You want me to act? Play the part of a silent guard in the background maybe? No way, Tyson. Acting is not my thing."

"And what is? Being all mister I'm-to-cool to be involved in anything? Just being the cold rebel in school that everybody stays well away from?"

"Is this going to become an argument, Granger?"

"Do you want it to be, Hiwatari?"

Kai massaged his temple and sighed. He hated losing to his guy, not even in a simple bickering, but he was in no mood for this. Tyson, he admitted, had a way of pulling him away from gloomy quagmires only to send him tumbling into some inferno instead. Tyson, he did not want to admit, could pull him in all strange directions, and churn his well-groomed emotions until he could not make out heads and tails of it.

"Could you help me with my lines?" he heard Tyson ask quietly and perhaps a little uncertainly.

Kai looked up at that and stared at his companion. Tyson was not looking at him. He had his eyes cast down on the papers in his lap, his bangs hiding whatever expression he might be harboring.

"Help you…how?" Kai asked in return, puzzled by it all.

He saw Tyson's shoulders heave and then Tyson lifted his head.

"I have to memorize my lines for the play," he explained, his expression serious. "Sure I have rehearsals, but I need to have my lines memorized even as I rehearse. There are so many acts. It could be helpful to have someone read the other parts while I read Juliet's."

It took a while for Kai to register it all.

"I'm sure there are so many guys who are more than willing to help, to…" Kai's voice trailed off. He wanted to say, "to be with you", but he couldn't bring himself to say it. It was like admitting a gross fact he himself did not want to know. Instead he finished with, "to get extra credits."

Tyson laughed.

"Yeah, a lot of them actually came up to me to volunteer their assistance."

Kai was not aware of how he sat up straighter at that.

"Even Robert came up to me," Tyson chattered on. "Imagine that! And to think generations of his family owns the school and all."

Robert and Kai could not care less for each other. In terms of status they were probably on par, but when it came to bearing, Robert seemed to see Kai as some sort of miscreant, a dishonour to a noble family name. They normally ignored each other save for the occasional smirk from Kai when Tala and Bryan took a dig at Robert and his aristocratic group. Robert just usually stepped over it all and went regally on his way. Right then, Kai thought that perhaps he actually disliked the guy most sorely.

"But I told all of them that I was fine by myself," Tyson's voice was a little softer at this, drawing Kai's attention to it.

The questions must have already shown on Kai's face because Tyson quickly lowered his gaze and said, "'Cause I wanted to…well…"

Somewhere in the back Kai's head, in the depths of his mind, he must have wanted to hear Tyson finish that sentence with what he hoped it would be. Tyson kept his eyes on the papers on his lap as he scratched at the back of his head; a thing he liked to do, Kai noticed, when he was feeling nervous or unsure.

"I thought I could help you get the credits," Tyson said finally, and Kai's breath came out in a strange whoosh, like a deflating balloon, too subtle for Tyson to pick up. He perked up though when he heard Tyson add, "And I thought it was a good way to spend time with you, you know…almost like old times, only without the normal bruises."

A pregnant silence followed as Tyson continued to look at the papers, keeping his eyes firmly down, and as Kai stared at the top of the young man's head.

Kai sensed that Tyson was feeling uncomfortable and the situation could potentially get awkward. In a bid to lighten up the mood, he finally said, "I'm surprised my nose is still straight now."

Tyson's head whipped up.

"Does that mean…"

"When do we start?"

A grin broke on Tyson's face and he wasted no time in snatching up the papers and stretching them out to Kai.

"As soon as possible," he replied, still grinning.

Kai took the papers and saw that they were pages of a script.

"Couldn't you at least staple them properly for me?" he demanded, staring down at the papers already starting to come loose.

Tyson laughed.

"I tried, but they were too thick."

"Then divide them into Acts or something!"

They did not have time to start at all because the tea arrived and Kai skimmed the script while Tyson chattered about what he wanted Kai to do. Kai listened intently to this chatter, his eyes only skimming most cursorily over the words on the script as he sipped his tea. It did not take much to know that Tyson was excited about his part in the play. It was never hard to know that Tyson was excited. He had always been forward that way.

When Albert came with the tea, Tyson easily got the elder man to sit down with them. Tyson never had any problem with people and he made friends easily, which was more than could be said for Kai. He was not someone who could just bound up to people and smile, and have them take to him immediately. Tyson was different. Kai could imagine him extending a helping hand to the foulest of traitors without batting an eyelid should that traitorous person needed it. Kai wondered if Tyson had not taught him certain things in the past. Would he even have been with Tala, Bryan, Ray and Spencer if Tyson had not shown him that having friend was not at all a bad thing. He didn't think so.

A maid came to announce that dinner was ready and Albert wasted no time leading them to the dining hall.

Kai knew Albert had a hand in the dinner preparations the moment he stepped into the vast dining hall. Usually any meal for Kai was a solitary affair, his loneliness only further accentuated by the vastness of the long table at which head he sat alone. The ceiling was so high, the mansion being old and all, that every clink of silverware on plate seemed to echo. He always ate fast, barely tasting his food.

Eating alone, there was no need for much lighting. Just one of the modern overhead light would do. Right then, the whole length of the dining table was lit by numerous candles, held in their individual places in the antique candelabras. The table was set for two, right in the center of the table's length and the food was laid, still steaming hot in their gleaming serving plates. Kai was glad that at least Albert had saved him some amount of mortification by not having one of the servants play the violin…or worse have a quartet perform for their dinner!

Tyson was beyond himself with excitement. He practically ran into the dining hall, spinning with his arms outstretched at his sides as he examined the ceiling and the walls, these being painted with exquisite murals.

"It is like Michelangelo's murals in the Sistine Chapel!" Tyson cried out, staring at the paintings in awe.

Kai followed his gaze as he sauntered into the hall, hands in the pockets of his slacks.

"It _is _a direct copy of the murals there," Kai explained. "My great-great grandfather was quite a fan of Michelangelo's murals anyway."

"Wow…but having it in your own _house_!" Tyson interjected, looking finally at Kai.

Kai found himself starting to like the mansion. He had been living there for almost all his life and all it had been was a cold, empty, scary place. Tyson was making him look, really look at what he had…and he realized, the mansion had its surprises.

They finally settled down to dinner, amidst furtive stares from the servants, who simply could not take their eyes off the visitor. The maids thought he was handsome; the male servants thought he was beautiful; thoughts that Master Kai quickly erased with a single piercing look. Kai ate his food, mostly in silence. He was more than happy to listen to Tyson prattle away about this and that, watch him sample dishes only to say over and over again how good they were. Kai himself had been forced to eat some of Tyson's share. He had no choice because Tyson simply cut up some pieces and threw them down onto his own plate of utter blandness. Kai chewed and went on eating again without a word. He would not allow Tyson the pleasure of knowing he liked the food…even the desserts, which Tyson managed to shove into his mouth when his guard was down. He even surprised everyone when he obliged Tyson's whim of going into the kitchen to thank the cook personally. It was certainly something to see the stout Portia melt into goo at Tyson's praises.

It was with a little tinge of regret that he saw Tyson to the door. The surprise visit had been…surprisingly pleasant. Tyson turned back at the path to wave at Kai and Albert before running up to the waiting car (for Kai had insisted, as only Kai could insist, on having Tyson sent home in a car with tinted windows) and climbing into it. Albert waved until the car was out of sight, but Kai kept his arms folded firmly across his chest, allowing himself only the briefest of glances at the homebound bluenette. Once the car was out the gate, Kai pushed himself off the wall beside the door and walked into the house without a word.

Later, Albert found him sitting in his study reading the script Tyson had given him at two in the morning.

* * *

**Next Chapter: Scripts and First Times**


	8. Scripts and First Times

**Disclaimer: **As of the first chapter and I don't own Shakespeare...just an entire collection of his plays. :)

**Author's Message: **Random piece of information: I actually read and re-read _Romeo and Juliet _a few times in order to write this fic. Just needed to get the lines to fit, you know? I really hope the quotes does not disrupt your reading but then again, I am sure all of you are great readers to have made it this far. :) I was of the belief that this fic would never see any readers. Anyway, hope you all enjoy this! Thank you for the reviews!

**Warnings: **Shakespeare...as in those tiresome, flowery lines. Beware! Oh and a back story. Double beware!

* * *

**Chapter 7: Scripts and First Times**

**

* * *

**

Albert had lived in the Hiwatari second mansion for as long as he could remember. He was only a boy when he was the attendant of Kai's grandmother, then still alive, still young and beautiful. He may be young, but he was old enough to remember that Voltaire Hiwatari had once been a smitten man; smitten by the young woman's beauty and charm, smitten by every word she breathed and every move of her body.

Voltaire Hiwatari had once been more than capable of love and had loved his wife, and the child they had, unconditionally. The child grew up a happy boy but when that boy was barely on the cusp of adulthood, the Hiwatari matriarch fell ill and it was not long after that she died. Upon her death, Voltaire Hiwatari started to withdraw into himself but he still had some affection for his son left.

He watched the young man graduate from university and was there at his wedding, even visited when his son and daughter-in-law first held a child in their arms. Voltaire was a proud grandfather, but he did not have the chance to enjoy it long enough before his only son and his daughter-in-law met with a fatal accident on the way home from a dinner party.

Voltaire was already too far withdrawn into himself when the little bundle of life was thrust into his care. He hired a wet nurse and left the boy in the care of Albert the butler, who was by then a grown man.

Albert was there to see Voltaire off at the door. The old man was making his way to the other Hiwatari mansion, which with his settling was made the Hiwatari _first _mansion. The baby was fretting and the wet nurse was trying in vain to soothe it. As if he knew that he had lost all hopes of a normal, loving family, the baby bawled properly as Voltaire strode down the steps to the waiting car. Albert watched the old man leave. Voltaire never looked back once as he walked down that path.

The servants did all they could to make the boy as happy and comfortable as possible. He was thankfully not spoiled, but he rarely ever smiled.

Some things when severed are indeed really lost.

Albert always felt sorry for this boy, growing up with no one but people who were there only to serve him, a boy who had no notion of what a family really meant. Kai Hiwatari did his homework dutifully and spent his free time reading books, but never much else. He had no friends in school. Like his grandfather before him, he was utterly withdrawn.

Then in the second year of elementary school, he started returning home with bruises on his face. Yet, he smiled, more a roguish smirk than a smile, but a smile nevertheless. He was smiling! He would talk, animatedly and not with his usual mono-syllable utterances, about how he was going to beat this one boy next time round even as a cloth soaked in warm water was applied to his face by an alarmed maid.

Albert had been worried. He was even more worried when Voltaire came for visits. The teachers would be quick to inform the old man about Kai's fights and for the first time ever, Voltaire actually looked at the boy, actually tried a hand at disciplining him with the cane. Voltaire harangued constantly about how was he to expect to pass his business empire to such a miscreant. Still, Kai would go right back into the old fighting routine when his grandfather went back home.

The pot of soil appeared not long after, in which Kai, versed in the art of gardening, placed a seed and nurtured it into a plant. Little trinkets followed, in those globes that you got from coin toy dispensers. Albert had been shocked the first time little Kai approached him for help buying someone a present. That someone, young Kai had blushingly revealed, was someone called Tyson Granger.

During those few years, Master Kai showed some bit of life, looked forward to something. He was not chatty but he was acknowledging the people around him. For the first time, the servants saw that Master Kai was seeing them, really seeing them and not a glance in passing, or gazes like those he always directed out of a window.

They had gotten used to it and the house was not somber anymore. Even the servants dared to speak and joke with one another. They sunk into it, accepting it, with much relief, as normality, until Master Kai started becoming withdrawn again. His concern led Albert to find out that the boy was gone. Kai was only fourteen, and he completed middle school the same way he had started elementary school—sullen and silent. Excellent grades placed Kai in a prestigious high school, where the environment; the neat students, the competitive nature, everyone's general snobbishness towards someone like him, someone with dual-toned hair, a pierced ear and casual disregard for school rules; only served to make him colder.

Some of the life returned when he met Tala, Bryan, Ray and Spencer in the college, but once in the mansion, Master Kai was the way he used to be, barely speaking to anyone, barely _seeing_ anyone.

Therefore, it had not escaped Albert when Master Kai returned one day with that little spark of life in his eyes again.

* * *

Albert walked down the corridor to Master Kai's sitting room. He was still a distance away when the sound of laughter, growing more familiar by the day, floated down to where he had stopped in his tracks. It was not Master Kai's laughter. He was not one to laugh with so little restrain. Albert smiled and continued his way to the sitting room. The door was ajar but he did not enter. He took the liberty of peeking into the scene beyond it. The two young men had pushed the chairs away from the table a little and were seated on the lush carpet with their backs leaning against them. Kai appeared entirely at ease even as he glared at Tyson as Tyson couldn't seem to control the sudden peal of laughter than seized him.

"You know, Tyson," Kai said, exasperated. "You are not making this easy for me."

Tyson tried his hardest to hold back his laughter by clamping his hand over his mouth. It took him a while before he was calm enough to speak.

"I can't help it, Kai!" he explained. "You read with such a monotone! I can't get into the mood."

"Look, I am not the one acting, so why should I be serious about this?" Kai demanded, never lifting his glare from the bluenette's face.

Tyson returned his glare with a level, slightly bemused look and replied, "To help me?"

He lifted the script, turned it a few pages to the front and scanned it a while.

"Let's start with the first scene in the first act."

Kai frowned.

"But there isn't any Juliet or Romeo in it," he pointed out.

"The play is never about any one or two characters, Kai," Tyson explained patiently. "It is about everyone. The moment someone steps on stage, it is already the play. Knowing everyone's parts in a play, even if it is not yours, is very, very crucial to the production. It helps you get a feel of everything and thus, helps you get into the right mindset for your part."

Kai raised an eyebrow.

"You sure know a lot," he said, feeling impressed despite himself.

Tyson ducked his head and answered, "I did take part in a play in the city school."

Kai blinked. Tyson's shyness always affected him in odd ways. He would get strange urges to do silly, irrational things, like ruffling Tyson's hair or leaning forward to…do whatever it was that people do when they leaned their faces and bodies towards another person. Mentally shaking himself of such a scandalous thought, Kai returned to the script.

"Let's get this over and done with, Tyson," he said coldly. "Act 1, Scene 1. You read the 'Prologue', I'll be Sampson and you be Gregory. Got me?"

Tyson stared at him a while, thinking how the commanding tone was becoming of Kai, before grinning.

Eventually, he chirped, "Aye! Aye! Captain!"

Kai muttered something that sounded like, "Idiot" under his breath before turning his attention to the script and the sound of Tyson's voice reading the 'Prologue'.

Albert on the other side of the door was reluctant to interrupt their little moment, but duty called for him to enter and announce dinner.

"_Now, by her maidenhead, at twelve year old…_" Kai stared down at the page and frowned. "Wait, Juliet's twelve?"

Tyson looked up from the script, to which they had promptly went back after dinner.

"Thirteen actually. Her father said that she had not yet seen fourteen summers," he explained, seeing no cause for alarm in it.

"Fine, she's only THIRTEEN, Tyson," Kai emphasized.

Tyson appeared sheepish when he replied, "Yeah. I guess girls come of age earlier back in those days. I read somewhere that girls get married at ages as young as eight. In the actual story of Snow White, she was only seven when all those things happened to her."

"Snow White was seven?" Kai found it far too hard to believe.

The bluenette smiled and suggested that they got back to the script.

They kept at it for a few weekends. Romero had been pleased when Tyson came up to him and told him about the part that Kai was playing in the production, which although was minor was worthy of the credits. (Kai thought he sensed something sly about the way Romero was pleased.)

Tyson was memorizing his lines perfectly; even the Drama Club veterans were impressed. Kai thought the bluenette was a natural at this. Sometimes, during their little rehearsals, he wondered what Tyson would look like in a dress. A wondering he would be quick to dash from his mind and focus on the script.

They did everything scene by scene; making sure Tyson remembered all his parts before they moved on. Tyson's visits changed something about the Hiwatari household. The servants were always glad to see Tyson, Albert was more cheerful than usual, Portia was always outdoing herself with the dinners on those few occasions where Tyson was not going back to eat, and if he didn't stay for dinner, Portia made sure he had something so unbearably sweet to bring home anyway. Kai…well, Kai could not say he dreaded the rehearsals. He was comfortable enough to bring Tyson to his room, where they would sit side by side on the carpeted floor with their backs leaning against the bed, to rehearse.

Kai…Kai liked the way Tyson always looked so languid, his legs splayed out before him as if there were no bones in them. Sometimes, Tyson would lounge like a cat on his bed as they read the lines. Of course, Kai would never, EVER admit to anyone that he looked forward to having Tyson over during the weekends.

Tybalt's line was read: "_Now seeming sweet, convert to bitterest gall_" and with that Tyson turned the paper over so that he would not see the parts he was to read on stage. Kai kept his eye on the page, to make sure that Tyson got it right. Besides, he was supposed to read his parts as Romeo too. They were already into act 1, scene 5, after Romeo and Juliet first met.

Kai read as Romeo:

_"If I profane with my unworthiest hand_

_This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:_

_My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand_

_To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss."_

Reading that line, Kai could not help but think what a cheesy sap Romeo was. However, when Tyson read in his Juliet voice, Kai looked up, the way he always did, to the point of distraction sometimes, when Tyson read his parts.

_"Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much…" _read Tyson.

From then, everything started to seem strange. Kai could have sworn that he heard singing, tiny fairy voices belting out a little melody in the air, sprinkling some sort of shimmering dust on everything in the room. Kai did not realize he was reading Romeo's lines without some snarky thought running through his head. Tyson's voice and his own drew him into a scene that was all at once alien and familiar to him, as if a secret wish was suddenly remembered, a hidden desire ignited. It all culminated in a single line which Kai spoke with an ardent he did not know he possessed:

_"Thus from thy lips, by thine, my sin is purged."_

Kai saw Tyson's face getting closer to his own, saw those eyes narrow and the head tilt a little. Or maybe, Kai was the one leaning in closer to Tyson and having _his_ head tilted. It was hard to tell. What was possible to tell was that their noses were going to fit well alongside each other and their lips, especially so. Their faces were so close then and it was only the distance of a centimeter that Kai had to cover before they would—

They both jumped away from each other at the same time. Kai saw that Tyson's eyes were wide and welling up with a frantic disbelieve that he discovered he wanted so badly to reach out and erase.

The desire to slap himself and rotate a knife in his own guts was overwhelming. What was he about to do just now? And with Tyson too! Kai could not think of what to say, as shocked as Tyson was about what had almost happened, what Kai had so naturally tried to do.

For a while they both stared at each other, before Tyson scratched the back of his head and ducked his head to look at the script once more. "Y…you don't have to really kiss me, Kai. It's only a dramatized reading."

Kai turned away and hid his eyes beneath his bangs. "Yeah...you're right. Now, let's just get on to the next part."

They dove back into their scripts with greater energy, trying their best to ignore what had just passed. Kai hoped that with the bustle of rehearsals in the studio, Tyson would forget all about the incident.

Kai kept his face averted well away as he read:

_"Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged!_

_Give me my sin again."_

Tyson did likewise with: _"You kiss by the book."_

And so they went about it, the awkwardness and unasked questions hanging thick like smog about them. At the end of the day, Tyson took himself to the door as always and as always, Kai walked with him down the stairs. Both walked with about two arm's length of distance between their bodies and their conversation were about things which were severely mundane.

* * *

**Next Chapter: Dress Rehearsals**


	9. Dress Rehearsals

**Disclaimer: **As of the first chapter.

**Warnings: **More Shakespeare and there will be more to come.

**Author's Message: **I'm awfully sorry about that but I felt that the story simply cannot be without them. Nevertheless, here's the next chapter. Enjoy. :)

* * *

**Chapter 8: Dress Rehearsals**

**

* * *

**

So the days went with Kai helping Tyson memorize his script, keeping to the sitting room—the safe zone—doing their best to ignore what lie thick and musky in the air. However, it did not take long for the old familiarity to sink back again and they were old friends, Tyson being all cheery and goofy, Kai making snarky remarks when he wasn't simply acknowledging everything with a "Hn".

Sometimes, Kai's friends and Tyson's as well would be there. (Kai never knew who really opened up the invitation but it just became more and more crowded after the time Tala and Bryan invited themselves over to his house to find, much to their genuine surprise, Tyson already there and looking very comfortable all curled up in slacks on Kai's settee.) Those times proved to be an immense riot, with everyone taking up a role and performing those parts with a finesse that would have made Shakespeare and the Lord Chamberlain's men [1] turn in their graves.

During those times, Kai always found himself wishing, without fail, that everyone would just leave.

He felt it and it was maddening to say the least. Both Tyson and himself were referring to the script less and less, and soon there came the dreaded time where the sheets of paper lie in stipulated stacks at their socked feet as they dramatized the parts verbally. There was the dread and the unspoken reluctance for either one to say it's over. After the last scene of their dramatized reading closed for the day, Kai and Tyson found themselves sitting in that comfortable contentment, comfortable no matter how temporary, simply talking of all things inconsequential: Tala's new jumpsuit which he'd bought on ebay for over a hundred dollars, Bryan's faux fur fetish, the death of Spencer's geraniums, Max's new addiction to green tea flavoured ice-cream, how Ray freaked out when the hairdresser cut his fringe half an inch too short during one of his annual hair trims, Kenny's latest hard drive upgrade and it went on.

They were always conjuring, always inventing something new to say, something to keep them sitting just a little longer, until the remembrance of an imminent school day that followed or the buzz of a cell phone told them they had to end it for the day. Tyson always stood a second longer on the steps before turning around and running down the path, bound for home.

It was after one of those "See ya in school, Kai!" goodbyes that Kai found himself standing in the middle of the sitting room staring down at the script he held in his hand, the reminders of Tyson's presence still not cleared from the table, a half-eaten cookie taking forlorn center-stage on a plate.

He didn't know why, but he started reading:

_"Two households, both alike in dignity,_

_In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,_

_From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,_

_Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean."_

Kai's hand dropped to his side and the script along with it but he continued reciting the Chorus of Act 1 of the play solely from memory.

_"From forth the fatal loins of these two foes"_

As Kai read the words, they seemed to recede from him and he felt like he was watching the tail end of a train diminishing down a tunnel, where everything was just bright enough for him to see it all happen but not enough for him to find his way. Kai knew…

_"A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life;"_

…that it all had to stop somewhere. Tyson was going to start on-stage rehearsals seriously very soon and the whole Drama Club was going to be busy with costumes, props and still more rehearsals. Hadn't Tyson said that theatre wasn't like a film where mistakes could be called for a cut by the director or edited out? Everything happened there and then on stage, in front of an audience. Performing such a popular play, everything needed to be perfect.

Kai recited the last line of the chorus and found he did not understand anything.

* * *

"So how about that, Tyson?" Julia Fernandez asked. "Still too tight?"

Julia was the sister of Raul, another member of the Drama Club. He was to play as Benvolio and since Julia was extremely good at making costumes and props, the twins being in the performance industry since young and all, she was the club's resident prop mistress, even if she was a girl.

Julia had been excited about making a dress for Tyson, a dress for a woman of class with all the embroidery and everything that went with dresses. It had been funny how Tyson was extremely shy about stripping to his boxer shorts for his measurements to be taken but Julia had been professional about everything and managed to get enough data to declare that Tyson had the built of a severely flat-chested girl. She marveled at how there was not a muscle to be seen, only sinews of a body well-trained though not buffed.

Tyson shook his head.

"Nope, that's fine. At least I can breathe," he said, placing a hand on his stomach. "Still, this is not something that I can wear on my own."

"Wear it for all of your rehearsals from now and get used to speaking with it. You will need that for the stage," Julia advised, giving Tyson an appreciative once-over, winked at him through the mirror and then bustled about getting the dress that Tyson was supposed to be fitted in.

In the meantime, Tyson looked at himself in the mirror and for a moment believed that he really was a female. He had on a petticoat over which Julia had secured a corset in a chokehold around his torso. Pads were slipped under the petticoat to give the illusion of breasts and even Tyson had to admire his newfound bosom, existent but realistically those of a girl still only thirteen.

He twisted and strained to look at his back in the mirror. He had a slight hourglass figure now, a figure forced into being quite literally by the corset. He had to admit that he was utterly sympathetic towards women of the past, considering how this was something they wore everyday.

"Well at least I don't have to wear bustles," he murmured to himself, folding his hands together and dropping them to see just how girlish he could push his looks.

"Those are normally worn by women of nobility," Julia put in, turning back to Tyson with the dress on a hanger, covered by a plastic protector, as well as a box of pins.

"Isn't Juliet noble?" asked Tyson as he stilled himself once more in front of the mirror.

"She is the daughter of a noble family, yes, but she is not exactly a woman of status. Now, Tyson, let's get you into this dress."

As Tyson was fitted into the dress, a pale virginal shroud with baby pearls sewn into the detailing at the chest region and a wide collar, he could not help think of an event he could not seem to quite forget. Perhaps because it hurt a little...maybe that was why it was so significant.

* * *

He had met Kai after their respective sports club activities to walk home the way that had become almost ritual. Kai was quiet. He didn't say much most of the time, and if he did speak, it was usually in reply to what Tyson was saying, sounding cruel or indifferent to most though not to the knowing bluenette. That day, Kai was particularly quiet; quiet in the way that indicated a preoccupation of the mind rather than a personalized sullen-ness.

So, Tyson was caught off guard when Kai _did _speak eventually.

"What about your track team, Tyson?"

"My track…oh," Tyson replied, recovering from his initial surprise. "What about it?"

"Isn't it tough being in two CCAs?" Kai asked, looking straight ahead of him as he walked.

"I'm coping very well actually," Tyson said, lacing his fingers together behind his head. "Right now as a freshman, I will not be able to try out for Regulars in the track team anyway and the training is not as tough. They were in fact nice enough to give me leave from track team activities when the rehearsals start getting intense. The good thing about the track team and the Drama Club is that the Art festivals begin way before the major races. So yeah…"

"You are not too sure if you are going to be a regular in the Drama Club, aren't you?" Kai said, giving his companion a quick sideways glance.

"Yeah. It was all so sudden, you know?"

Kai frowned out at the stretching road before him. "But if everyone likes you in that play, the club will want you as a regular."

Kai thought of hoots and catcalls from the audience, and did not think he liked it at all, but who was he to stop anyone who thought Tyson was hot anyway?

"I don't think Brooklyn would want me to usurp his spot center stage," said Tyson with a laugh.

Kai thought then of how Brooklyn came for Tyson after class practically everyday, on the pretext of bringing news of rehearsals and production meetings. What was the bloody cell phone for, for God's sake? Kai had watched Brooklyn sit beside Tyson during lunch, leaning in too close, staring too fondly as the bluenette, completely unsuspecting, told a joke or laughed. No, from the looks of it, Brooklyn was not vacating center stage. He was hell bent on standing there with a certain someone and he was pushing himself into every scene that had Tyson in it.

"I wouldn't be so sure, Tyson," Kai murmured, shoving his hands a little too violently into his blazer pockets.

"I will have to make a decision some day, I know." Kai heard Tyson sigh and turned to see the bluenette staring up at the peach sky. "But that will be later. Right now, in my freshman year, I want to just experience as much as I could before I start to get all serious. What's the point of doing something, being somewhere and not having fun while you're there?"

Kai thought about it. Perhaps Tyson had a point, perhaps…but he wasn't much of a…fun guy. Sure he dealt with Tala's jokes, sure he gave a snide remark or two, but he wasn't one to do things for the mere fun of it. Tala and Bryan did all sorts of ridiculous things that seemed pointless to him, things he'd seen as a mere audience in the sidelines. Ray seemed to be in an eternal romantic comedy that had no end in sight. On top of that, he was also in an eternal love affair with his hair, and his meditation. All so inane, all such a waste of time to Kai. Spencer spent his days digging in dirt, making things grow. He said he liked it. Kai thought back to his own little African violet back at home, where the soil for that plant was from and looked at Tyson again.

Truth was, it was only with Tyson that Kai did silly things that would mean nothing to anyone else.

As such he took a while to raise that dreaded question:

"When are rehearsals going to start proper, Tyson?"

That broke Tyson out of a silent reverie that was a little uncharacteristic of the bluenette. "Wha—? Oh, you mean rehearsals for the play? It is starting next week. My evenings would be burned and so will my weekends."

"So I guess we don't need to read the script at my house anymore." It was a statement, not a question.

"But I will still want to hang out with you, Kai," Tyson told him, coming up close to stand before Kai causing him to stop walking, before peering up eagerly into raging violet eyes.

"Yeah, we can…maybe dinner or homework or whatever…"

The older boy knew how it must sound to Tyson. It sounded like he didn't want to spend time with Tyson, like he wanted Tyson to just leave. He thought he saw Tyson's face fell.

"Whenever you're free, Kai!" Tyson chirped, perking up again. "I love Portia's chocolates!"

Kai smirked at that. He had to, anything to keep the situation from spiraling down into an abyss of which bottom he could not fathom.

"Food," he said. "Is that all you ever think about?"

Tyson still peered up him. His eyes appeared almost searching.

With a smile, Tyson whirled around and continued walking. "Among other things, Kai. Among other things."

* * *

"Tyson? You hear me?"

"Huh? What?" Tyson said, looking all about him.

"The dress," Julia pointed out in the mirror. "What do you think?"

Tyson looked up into the mirror and for a moment, he didn't recognize himself. The dress was lavish and beautiful. Clearly, Julia had invested a lot of effort into the dress. Tyson didn't look like himself. He looked like a girl for one thing. All he needed was to loose his hair and it would be perfect.

Strangely, he liked it. He twisted this way and that, eager to see how the dress looked from all angles. It was amazing how volatile a body could be, how easily gender was moulded from one to another, how fluid everything was.

"I love it!" he cried.

Julia looked pleased at that and replied confidingly, "I spend the greatest amount of time on this dress. I wanted you to look like you are meant to be in it."

Tyson turned to his reflection. In it he saw that he was all at once Tyson and Juliet, her love far, far away and unreachable. Or perhaps it was his love who was far away and beyond reach. It was hard to tell. Everything was turning out to be a proper tragedy after all. Julia had done a very, very good job.

* * *

Footnote(s):

[1] Company of actors who acted Shakespeare's plays in the late 1500s.

* * *

**Next Chapter: Hath Kisses Stolen, Not Given Free**


	10. Hath Kisses Stolen, Not Given Free

**Disclaimer: **As of the previous chapters.

**Author's Notes: **I know I used to update everyday, but semester has started for me and studies calls. Not to worry, however, because I want to see myself finish this fic. Oh, and I couldn't resist taking that stab with Kai's cologne/scent. No ill-meaning intended. It was all in good fun. Hope you enjoy this chapter. :D Thank you all for reading and surviving this far!

* * *

**Chapter 9: Hath Kisses Stolen, Not Given Free**

**

* * *

**

Even before the invasion of posters along the corridors, in the canteen and on the back of every toilet cubicle door; even before members of the Drama Club came around with their flyers and verbal advertisements, Kai knew that the first day of performance was drawing near. The number of times he walked home with Tyson grew less and less. Soon, he was walking home alone almost everyday.

It ought not to be anything new. Kai had been walking home alone for years. Yet, it did not sit well with him how the spot beside him was empty as he trudged down that known road, thinking of nothing but how Tyson was going to be like on stage as Juliet.

Surely, it was a natural curiosity. After rehearsing the script with Tyson, it was normal for him to be curious, right? He thought about it, but couldn't really picture Tyson in a dress. He could see, however, Brooklyn in tights of scorching red and a cap with a huge feather in it fawning all over Tyson right in front of everybody in the audience. As much as he tried not to think about it, the image was not a favourable one.

Kai had to constantly shake himself mentally for thinking thoughts he ought not to think about. He thought them anyway and then his mental shaking became jarring.

"Hey, Tyson!" called Tala when he spotted the bluenette walking down the corridor.

"Oh! Hey, Tala!" Tyson called back cheerfully as he trotted over to the redhead.

Tala stood with Bryan and Ray smack in the center of the corridor, the crowd giving them wide berth as it passed. A certain dual-toned gentleman was significantly missing but no one in the trio seemed to be bothered by it.

"On your way to rehearsal, pretty boy?" Bryan asked playfully.

"Yeah. Oh, say…do you guys want to buy tickets for the play?" asked Tyson in turn.

Tala leaned down and said, "That was exactly why we were looking for you!"

Tyson perked up at that and promptly produced a booklet of tickets from the pocket of his blazer.

"Cool!" he cried. "And for that you get an early-bird's discount."

"Tala's a closet Shakespeare fan," Bryan revealed, extracting his wallet almost reluctantly. Tala grinned rather evilly as Bryan threw him a telling sidelong glance. Tyson noted that Bryan was paying for two.

"You know the drill, Bry!" Tala sang. "_Tops_ pay!"

"Two, for me and Spencer, Tyson. Thanks. Um…I am paying on his behalf," Ray spoke up, tucking his file under his armpit so that he could pat his pockets for his wallet. "Is it free-seating?"

"Nope," Tyson told him, shaking his head and tearing off a ticket. "But since you bought the tickets early, you got some of the best seats in the theatre and you are all also sitting next to Max and Kenny."

At the mention of the blond's name, Ray's hand suddenly faltered and the money fell from his hand to the floor. He picked it up hastily and upon straightening up said in a voice too contrived to be real, "That's cool, Tyson!"

Tyson said nothing until he had handed Ray the tickets. When Tyson's hand did not let go of the tickets, Ray looked up to see the bluenette smiling at him all too knowingly. "Max talks about you all the time."

Tala and Bryan snickered as Ray blushed a deep crimson.

"R…really?" Ray stammered. "I…I didn't know…"

"Yeah," replied Tyson, letting go of the tickets. "He does."

Tala clapped a hand on Ray's shoulder.

"You hear that, Ray?" Tala asked.

"Say, I need to get going," Tyson cut in, regrettably. "I'm glad you guys are coming. It's too bad Kai isn't though. But still—"

Tala was always one to be sharp and it did not escape him that the bluenette's countenance turned wistful for just a split-second when he spoke.

"Kai isn't going?" Tala asked as if to confirm it. Tala didn't know why but he was starting to feel a little annoyed. Bryan noted this and backed away a step, as did Ray.

Tyson had his head down as he replaced the ticket booklet and the money in an envelope. For the length of time it took for him to do that, no one could see his expression.

"Yeah. Said it was not his thing," Tyson answered, looking up at the taller redhead. With a laugh, he added, "Typical Kai."

Tala peered down at the younger boy for a while, but not too long to make the other feel uncomfortable. Then he said, "Say, Tyson. I suddenly remembered that I have a friend who said he was interested to watch the play. He's from another school you see. So could I have one more ticket, please?"

* * *

Kai knew something was not right when he opened the mansion's front door to find his friends, Tala and the gang, at his doorstep, all spiffily dressed. Kai knew there was to be no argument when Tala strode past him into the mansion and up the stairs. Kai knew there was to be no escape from whatever Tala had planned for him when Spencer and Bryan—the burlier guys of the group—each took an arm of his and led him in Tala's trail.

They got him past a most surprised Albert and into his room, where they locked the door and, after throwing him unceremoniously on the bed, proceeded to strip him. Ray got hold of his slack's waistband and tugged. Bryan got him out of his shirt while Spencer clamped him down with little effort.

"What is the meaning of this?" Kai demanded once he found his voice, struggling against Spencer's amazing strength.

Tala strode over to his wardrobe and threw it wide open.

Scrutinizing the selection, he answered absently, "You're going out, Kai my boy."

"Out? What do you mean, 'out'?"

"Ah, these will do," Tala murmured, pulling out a black T-shirt, a purple jacket with large brass buckles and a pair of dark jeans. "I'll bet you'd want your white scarf?" And he threw this article on the bed along with the rest of the clothing he'd chosen.

"Tala!" Kai barked, boxer clad and still struggling against Spencer's hold.

"You're going with us to appreciate some Shakespeare," the redhead replied, continuing to poke around in Kai's wardrobe. "Now put those on. Let's all get going before we're late. No entry once the performance starts until the break is called for the next act, you know! We'll miss the whole of Act I!"

Kai went still. Glaring up at his friend, he gritted out the words, "I am not going."

Tala crossed his arms then and Bryan looked up to see eyes that he knew, from years being with the redhead, told him Tala was in a mood that was not to be messed with. For a while, the whole atmosphere was tense as two of the most headstrong people around tried to stare each other down.

Finally, Tala broke the silence.

"Why are you so averse to watching the play?"

"I'm not!" Kai cried, then as if catching himself a little too late, muttered, "It's just not my thing."

"Yeah, sure. Ray, get him into his pants. Kai, I shall assume you've showered," Tala said, turning around once more.

He surveyed Kai's toiletries and pulled out a red glass bottle. It read 'Dranzer', to which Tala lifted a skeptical brow. "Hm, must be some new scent," he murmured. He sprayed a bit onto the inside of his wrist and sniffed, before grimacing. "Kai, has your olfactory organ gone blind?"

"I'm not going."

Tala whipped around from his search for cologne, still holding the bottle.

"You aced that test on _Romeo and Juliet_ and you are secured an 'A' as your final grade for this class, without having to write a research essay. The least you can do is go for Tyson's play. He's helped you enough," he said, tossing the bottle onto the pile of clothing articles.

Kai went silent and still. There was yet another pregnant pause before he quietly said, "Let go. I can dress myself."

The three other boys looked over at Tala. At the redhead's nod, they let go of Kai and got off the bed. Tala crossed his arms over his chest and watched as Kai sat up on his bed, rubbing at a wrist. He did not flinch when Kai lifted glowering eyes up at him from under slate-grey bangs.

"You're an asshole, you know that, Tala? A fucking asshole."

Tala only grinned and said, "Why, thank you and I'm sure Bryan will agree with you." As Bryan grinned, he spun on his heels and walking away said, "Oh, be grateful, Kai. I don't even pay for my _own _tickets most of the time."

The door closed on Tala and the rest of the gang. Kai felt like spitting at it. Trust Tala to be spoiling things for him like this. Kai was trying to avoid this day, avoid going for the performance on all the days it ran, because he knew some things were going to be destroyed for him, within him. He was going to be hurt; he was going to wish he'd never gone. But right then, with his friends waiting on the other side of his door and the drop from his room to the ground a good enough distance to be breaking something should he attempt it, there really was no way out of it.

Of course, it wasn't going to make a difference whether he went or not. He was already neck deep in something and sinking deeper still every day, every hour, every minute.

Kai dressed himself in the clothes that Tala had picked out for him, but decided to replace the jacket with a plain black leather one out of spite and remained sullen throughout the whole journey to the school's theatre house.

* * *

The theatre was bathed in a warm orange glow when the gang was ushered in. Max and the bespectacled boy, Kenny, were already seated and looking through their programmes when they arrived. Max spotted Ray and immediately waved the older boy over. Ray was hesitant but when the rest of the gang (excluding Kai, who trudged like it was the last place on Earth he wanted to be) clambered about behind him and practically pushed him into his seat, he had no choice but to sit there.

Kai was seated right at the edge of the row, directly beside Tala. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back into the plush seat. It was going to be a long, long night.

"I am so excited! This is the first time I'm watching a play in a theatre!" Max whispered loudly to Ray, unable, as always to keep the excitement out of his voice.

"Me too!" Ray was heard replying, simply happy to be sitting beside the blond and basking in the full glow of his attention.

Kai wanted to just close his eyes and drown out their voices. Well, at least there was one happy camper around, love struck fool that Ray was. Kai frowned at the thought. Why did he feel like a hypocrite thinking that?

"And you know what?" Max whispered again, sounding both conspiring and gleeful. "Tyson is going to have his first kiss stolen on stage! By another boy!"

Kai almost bolted upright. He couldn't help but turn his face towards the (inappropriately) excited blond. He could be thankful, at least, that everyone was also looking at Max.

"You mean the first time Juliet gets kissed by Romeo, in that scene?" Tala demanded.

"But rehearsals," Bryan added, leaning so far forward that he was almost spilling into Spencer's lap (much to the chagrin of Tala). "Surely, they'd practiced it during rehearsals."

Max continued grinning and shrugged.

"I think Brooklyn has a thing for Tyson, you know. And knowing how Brooklyn loves drama, he would not want to steal that kiss any other way. Frankly, I am excited."

* * *

"_Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake."_

Tyson looked up from the script, which he'd already memorized actually, and found that he was feeling very nervous. Brooklyn was looking down at him, as if gazing down at a fond plush toy, and if that was not bad enough, the orange-haired senior was leaning down towards him reciting:

"_Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take._

_Thus from thy lips, by thine, my sin is purged."_

It was all part of the play, which was why Tyson ought not to flinch when Brooklyn's hand found its way to his cheek or when their noses touched. Yet, Tyson still scrunched up his eyes tightly as he waited for the kiss to come, the kiss he found he dreaded.

Brooklyn's chuckle came as sporadic puffs of warm breath on Tyson's cheek, making him open his eyes again. Brooklyn drew away just far enough so that he could look at Tyson properly but not far enough for the intimacy to be broken.

"We'll just pretend to kiss, okay?" Brooklyn whispered very close to Tyson's ear so that only the latter could hear the words.

Tyson was about to feel relieved when the senior added with a suspiciously evil smile, "The actual kiss will take place on stage. Save those lips till then, yeah?"

Romero cleared his throat then and the two pulled away, with Tyson still feeling more worked up than he ought to be.

* * *

Tyson found himself in front of the mirror again. This time, he was sitting down in his petticoat and corset having his hair curled and styled. He had to endure a manicure and a pedicure on Julia's whim just before, and had to be careful about his nails. He found it most inconvenient and despite everything, wondered why any girl would want their nails so pretty. The script lie wrangled in his hands and he found that he was having a mental blockage. No words from the play could come into his head and he was frightened that he would forget everything.

A light poke on his right cheek startled him out of his musings. He looked up to see Julia looking at him through the mirror.

"Hey, lighten up! You look tense!" she chirped, poking him again. "Juliet is supposed to look innocent, not fretting like some mother waiting for her kid at the door."

Tyson had not realized the extend of his facial expression until he caught sight of it himself. He had to laugh.

"Yeah, you're right. I am just a little…no, make that a LOT nervous for the performance."

Julia went back to doing his hair. Of all the actors, she paid particularly close attention to Tyson. She liked the boy, not in the romantic way but as a person. There was something utterly magnetic about his personality and he was always sure to give anyone a good laugh. It was not common to see Tyson like this…no, not simply in a petticoat and corset, but tense and unsmiling.

She leaned down to place her face beside his and patted him on both his shoulders. "You will be fine, Tyson. Raul told me you were superb during the rehearsals. Even the seniors were impressed."

Tyson just snorted a laugh at that and watched as Julia carefully curled another bit of his hair.

"Anyone special coming to watch?" she asked, intent on her work.

At the question, Tyson immediately thought of Kai. Mentally shaking himself off the thought, albeit unsuccessfully, he replied, "Gramps and Daichi are coming tomorrow."

Julia took up another section of hair and giggled. "I don't mean _that_ kind of special, Tyson…"

"Oh," Tyson said, laughing in kind, only goofily. "No. No one in particular."

Julia noted that Tyson sounded a little sad but mentioned nothing. She completed the rest of Tyson's long hair and proceeded on to the make-up, claiming that she could not trust anyone else to Juliet's make-up. They did not speak another word. Tyson watched his transformation in Juliet and felt calmer.

When all was done and Tyson was in the dress, Julia gave him a playful slap on his ass and said, "Make the audience go wild, Tyson!"

* * *

The announcement for all in the audience to turn off their mobile phones was made. Backstage everyone in the cast told each other to break a leg, since wishing each other good luck was a sort of taboo for theatre. Tyson got a lot of appreciative once-overs and playful bows from those playing the male roles in the play. He looked across the backstage area and met Brooklyn's eye. The senior winked at him and Tyson smiled back. He wanted to grin his usual grin but he could not find it in himself to do so.

A hush had overcome the audience.

Backstage, Tyson closed his eyes and took in a deep breath.

Those in the first act took their places centre stage.

The curtain rose to reveal a perfect rendition of the elaborate multi-storey stage of the Elizabethan Globe Theatre where Shakespeare's plays used to be performed. The Chorus, all of them wearing the same nondescript black cloaks and expressionless masks, stood together like a choir.

"_Two households, both alike in dignity…"_

With that so began, Act 1.

* * *

**Next Chapter: Where's this girl? What, Juliet!**


	11. Where’s this girl? What, Juliet!

**Disclaimer: **As of the other chapters.

**Author's Note: **Plenty of confusion on my part with regards to Juliet's age, because she had not seen TWO summers before her fourteenth year and I live on a tropical island where there are only hot and wet seasons. But I did a check with what Shakespeare critics (those guys who study Shakespeare's works in better detail…) has to say, and found that she is really thirteen. I thought I should give you guys a heads up there. Enjoy!

**Warnings: **To spoil the show or not to spoil the show...that is the question. I don't believe in villains, only people who happen to be in the wrong place, the wrong circumstance at the wrong time and place. :D

* * *

**Chapter 10: **_**Where's this girl? What, Juliet!**_

_**

* * *

**_

The famous play went flawlessly, displaying the talent that the college's Drama Club was famous for. Kai had to admit that it was quite an experience watching the play first hand after having gone through the whole script with Tyson, dramatizing the very parts that were played before his eyes on stage.

There were times where Kai found himself mouthing the more witty pieces of conversation along with the characters. Those times he would have to catch himself and look to the redhead sitting beside him to see if he'd been caught. To his relief, Tala was very much engrossed in the play, along with the rest of the audience present.

Garland played Tybalt and Raul, Benvolio, to perfection. Their fight in the very first scene of the play set the stage for more to come, as it was both compelling and comical. However, Kai couldn't help but dislike Paris' character a little and the talk that Paris had with Lord Capulet reminded Kai of the time he first found out that Juliet was—

"_She hath not seen the change of fourteen years,_

_Let two more summers wither in their pride,_

_Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride."_

—only thirteen when all of this took place in the play.

However, almost every person in the audience was awaiting the entrance of that freshman who had somehow clinched the star role of Juliet. Words had gotten round among the seniors that the Freshman playing Juliet was pretty, coveted not only by the President of the Drama Club himself, (who _happened_ indeed to be playing Romeo in the play), but the very son and heir of the family who founded and ran the school. Such news was enough to make everyone curious as to what this freshman was made of and, of course (and most importantly), what he looked like in a dress.

"Tyson!" he heard someone hiss very near his ear. He had pretty much calmed down, especially after listening to the banter and later swordfight between Garland and Raul. Still he jumped before turning around to see Romero bending down towards him, his hand at his mouth to whisper:

"Get ready; your cue is coming next."

"Oh, yeah," Tyson replied, giving his corseted, dress-covered torso one last pat before making for stage left from which he'd enter into Act 1, Scene 3 of the play.

"Tyson!"

The bluenette looked back. He saw Romero smiling at him.

"Break a leg."

From the stage came the Nurse's call, a tinge of Oliver's Frenchman's accent still apparent in the voice:

"_Now, by my maidenhead, at twelve year old,_

_I bade her come. What, lamb! What, ladybird!_

_God forbid! Where's that girl? What, Juliet!"_

Tyson stepped into the scene to a thick hush from the audience.

Juliet entered and there was an audible catch in everybody's breath, especially Kai's. All eyes were on her, looking for nuances that indicated the real gender beneath the dress and demeanor. There were none.

No one was fully prepared for how Juliet was going to appear on stage. No one was prepared at all for the sight of Tyson in a dress. No one expected a boy could look so…pretty.

"Wow! That Tyson sure is pretty in that dress…" someone said to his friend right behind where Kai and his friends were sitting. "Too bad he's a guy. If he's a girl, I'll corner him…and…"

Kai could not stop himself from sending them his famous glare over his shoulder. They emitted a squeak and sank down in their seats. When Kai turned back to the play, he noticed Tala looking at him out of the corner of his eye, smirking just a little. Kai chose to ignore it and turned his attention to the play instead.

The dress Tyson was wearing looked like it had been made for a princess. The neck scooped down over a chest which had a slight rising that Kai was sure Tyson didn't have before. Of jewelry Tyson only had on pearl earrings and a necklace, but his straight hair was curled into waves, part of it braided back to form a half-ponytail.

On stage, Tyson did not have time to take in the thickened silence. He delivered his first line on stage without a glitch: _"How now? Who calls?"_

_

* * *

_

Kai watched as the stage lights come on again to reveal a ballroom scene with masked party-goers mingling with each other, creating a cheery buzz. Since the moment of his appearance on stage, Brooklyn had been keen to be in the limelight as much as possible. As such, while his character was supposed to try and blend in with the party in Act 1, Scene 5, Brooklyn stood out so much with his over dramatics that that task was impossible. That did not bother Kai as much as Juliet's present entrance into the scene with the rest of the Capulet family. For the first time Juliet and Romeo were on stage at the same time and Kai kept recalling what Max had said before.

He was aware then that the whole thing bothered him a lot. He was able to admit to himself then that he cared for Tyson enough, no...in an odd, unexplainable way, cared for him so much that he didn't want Tyson's first kiss to be taken by a pompous, carrot-headed, drama-king, on STAGE, in front of so many people. Heck, he didn't want Tyson's first kiss to be taken by _anyone_ at all. He was also not going to lie to himself that despite him sitting calmly in his seat, his usual serious expression in place, and arms crossed over his chest, despite him looking so unaffected, he was actually quelling an insane desire to climb onto the stage and punch the living daylights out of Brooklyn. Why, Tybalt's rapier looked about good right then.

Then there came those lines, those lines that came before the kiss. Kai tried not to listen, but he was saying the lines along with Romeo. He tried not to look, but at the point where Romeo kisses Juliet in the play, he looked up and saw…saw Brooklyn leaning forward, and their lips touched, lightly and then once more before Juliet proclaimed that Romeo kissed like he learned it from a book. Sometimes, there were disadvantages about having the best seats in a theatre.

It was strange. Kai felt like he lost something that moment. Lost something so important and so profound.

The rest of the play went with a blur. At the last scene, Kai closed his eyes as Juliet said:

"_This is thy sheath; there rust,_

_and let me die."_

He felt it already: what a mistake it was for him to be there, watching the play. If he had not come, he would be at home thinking about the scene where Romeo kisses Juliet but he would not have known about Brooklyn's plan to steal Tyson's first kiss on stage. He would not have seen it. Something told him that he had let something go, some time in the past, and that the kiss on stage would not have been Tyson's first.

* * *

There was a reception after the play. Kai did not want to go. The last thing he wanted was to see Tyson and the rest of the cast. The last, last thing he wanted was to see Brooklyn _with _Tyson, and the rest of the cast. But Tala and Bryan, born perhaps from the lowest circle of hell seeing how they were always making Kai's life more miserable than it already was, dragged him to stay for it. They had bought chocolates and wanted to give them to Tyson, since, according to Bryan, it was polite to give someone a gift after their performance to show that you appreciate it. Kai had nothing to give but Tala had insisted in true Tala style that he should at least stay and congratulate Tyson. Kai did not see the point since Tyson had only performed and not given birth.

"Stay anyway," Tala said and that was that. Kai knew it was childish to keep arguing.

Perhaps, the truth to the matter was that he _wanted_ to see Tyson no matter under what circumstances. There was nothing rational about feelings sometimes.

The reception was held in the large gathering area outside the performance theatre. It was just a little beyond the ticketing counters and tables laid with a buffet had been set. While everyone milled around, Kai stood apart from the party like an outsider looking in. Ray was talking to Max, Kenny and Lee near the dessert table. Ray was probably hoping for Lee and Kenny to leave despite his benevolent smiles and laughter. Tala and Bryan were somewhere. So Kai stood alone with a Styrofoam cup of innocent, children's party punch in his hand. He would have been glad for the solitude. Only he wasn't.

He had wanted to see Tyson. All he would do when he did see the bluenette was say something not-so-encouraging and as always he would expect Tyson to know his nature and brush it all off as typical Kai behaviour. Damn, sometimes Kai just wanted to punch himself.

He had wanted to see Tyson; that was true. When the bluenette finally did came out, in a white shirt tucked into slim black pants, his hair, still retaining its Juliet waves, pulled back into a simple, low ponytail, Kai had straightened up and pushed himself off the table he was leaning against with a hand. But no sooner had he done that, the Drama Club President had swooped in on Tyson and taken the bluenette by the waist to take him around the room to receive the congratulations from everyone.

There was nothing left in him for anger. Kai lost everything during that kiss. He contemplated stepping out and away from the party, to which he never belonged. But he heard his name called and the voice made him turn back. That voice could probably call him from the dead should he be shot in the head. He saw Tyson running up to him, while Brooklyn watched, his expression maddeningly serene.

"You came!" Tyson said happily right into his face. "I thought you said you wouldn't!"

He found himself looking into a pair of starry wine-coloured eyes and those eyes had only before been filled with sorrow on stage when looking upon the figure of a dead lover. He faltered inwardly. How could eyes do that?

Steeling himself, he replied, ice cold, "Tala had an extra ticket and Ray wanted company."

Tyson's face fell for just a fraction of a moment and Kai felt like killing himself. His lies were hurting but there was nothing he could do to take them back. Tyson grinned and landed a light punch on Kai's shoulder.

"I'm still glad you came," Tyson said, in a voice much softer than he was used to speaking.

Rigidly Kai stood, arms crossed and feigning disinterest he never felt. His mind was saying a lot of other things like: _Shake his hand and say 'Good job, Tyson'_ or maybe _'Excellent performance, Tyson'_. But no. He only kept quiet and an awkward silence rose between them like an unpleasant, embarrassing smell.

In the background, music started up. The old kind, like the one in the dance scene during the party scene of the play. Tyson turned to look at the band for an instant and Kai took the opportunity to look at the back of Tyson's head, noting how alien the waves looked.

Turning back, Tyson asked excitedly, a thumb pointing in the general direction of some dancing couples, most of which were male-male, "Hey, do you want to—"

"No," Kai replied far too quickly.

Tyson took an involuntary step back at that.

"If he wouldn't, I most certainly would."

Tyson spun around and almost collided into the body of another man. Robert stopped him from doing so with two hands on Tyson's waist and smiled down at the younger man.

"You made a beautiful Juliet," Robert commented letting go of Tyson, smiling still.

Sheepishly scratching the back of his head, Tyson said, "Yes, but as Tyson I am hardly—"

"Ah," Robert interrupted him. "True beauty hardly has anything to do with gender or the costume."

Kai watched Tyson laugh at the remark. His hand tightened over the cup as he looked on. Only before he had been in. Tyson was talking to him, but Kai couldn't even hold a decent conversation. Then, as Robert flirted with Tyson, he was out again.

"Now, the object of my coming here," Robert went on. Taking Tyson's hand, he asked, "Will you do me the honour of a dance, my lady?"

Tyson was looking up at the gentleman and laughing amusedly. "I am not wearing my dress anymore."

"Let me correct that. Will you, my dear sir, do me the honour of a dance?"

Kai frowned, unaware that he, like Robert was awaiting the answer.

Tyson glanced at Kai. Kai only looked back indifferently. When he tried to take a sip of his punch, which had long since disappeared, Tyson turned to Robert and said, "Sure."

Robert took Tyson's hand and led him away, though not before looking back at Kai with an expression that strangely did not carry within it any sort of triumph, only something that bordered on pity. Not that Kai needed any. No.

Inside the bearer of the dual-toned tresses was beating himself up severely. He watched, increasingly pained, as Tyson was led to the dance floor and then settled into an immaculate ballroom waltz with Robert. It was a little funny because Tyson was hardly a maiden in a flowing dress but the two of them seemed to be enjoying themselves. He saw the two of them talking as they danced and then Tyson seemed shy as Robert peered down interestedly at him, then as Robert chuckled, Tyson laughed and Kai could hear him from where he stood. Kai felt himself wanting to stomp over and break it all up.

Angry with himself for thinking that and for various other things, he turned and made to leave.

Only he almost collided into Tala and Bryan, leaning on the table, drinking from cups and watching the two dance. Kai swore they had not been there before.

"You should have asked him to dance," Bryan said, not looking at Kai.

Kai grunted and left.

"Say Tala," Bryan spoke up again, turning to his boyfriend. "Why do we keep doing this to Kai?"

"Because he's too stupid to see," replied Tala, following his reply with kiss to Bryan's lips.

"Oh," Bryan uttered, not appearing very thoughtful about it. "You want to dance?"

* * *

**Next Chapter: Bedlam**


	12. Bedlam

**Disclaimer: **As of the other chapters and _Hey Juliet _is LMNT's.

**Warnings: **You all know Kai…his drama and his reasons… and another dinner.

* * *

**Chapter 11: Bedlam**

**

* * *

**

Kai has some of the bestest friends in the world. They really…watched out for him. They made school days fun. Kai loved them, most ardently…

"_Hey I've been watching you,_

_Every little thing you do_

_Every time I see you dance _

_In my homeroom class_

_Makes my heart beat fast…"_

Kai. Really. Loved. Them.

Kai was not one to show his emotions too easily but at the sound of Tala's voice singing _Hey Juliet_, he hissed irritably and banged his books into his locker.

"Cut it, Ivanov," he said warningly, sending a glare the redhead's way.

Tala's voice lowered to a whisper but he still continued singing loud enough for Kai to hear:

"_I think _

_You're fine_

_You really blow my mind_

_Maybe, some day_

_You and me can run away_

_I just want you to know…"_

And then Tala bellowed out the final lines of the chorus:

"_I want to be your ROMEO,_

_HEY JULIEEEEEET! HEY JULIET!"_

Thus, causing the students passing by to stop whatever they were doing and look. At Kai's glare, they went about their businesses again somewhat hurriedly.

Tala started guffawing. Soon after Bryan and Ray came along, laughing as they had heard Tala's voice from down the hall.

"You wanted that part, Kai. I can tell. You wanted to be the one who said, 'Call me but _Love _and I will be new baptized'," said Tala dramatically clasping his hands.

"I see somebody memorized the whole thing," Kai said, leaning against his locker.

To this Tala replied, "Don't change the subject, Sourpuss. You got to face the facts."

"There is nothing to face."

Tala only smirked and opened the door of his locker.

"Whatever you say, Kai. Whatever you say," was all he said as he put in his books. Seeing Ray, Tala turned and drawled, "Heeeey! At least here's someone who has made progress!"

"Hey guys," Ray greeted them shyly. "It is really nothing, Tala." Then as a way of explanation to Kai, whom Ray was sure knew nothing, said to the young man, "I asked Max out."

Kai continued to look at his friend, not able to quell the sudden envy that rose in him.

"And he said 'yes'," Ray went on, as if to elicit some sort of reaction from Kai.

"Good for you," said Kai finally before turning to his locker and closing it. "About time too."

"Thanks, Kai," Ray replied, laughing a little. "Maybe you ought to make a move too."

"What move?" demanded Kai, looking steadily at Ray who did not seem to quaver under such attention.

"We all know what move, Kai," Ray began.

Tala butted his red head in and added, "Yeah. Listen to the lover boy, Kai, and ask Ty—"

"May I be let in on the gossip too?" a voice spoke up from behind Kai, causing him to start, hopefully not visibly.

He spun around to find Tyson standing there, looking pretty much like Tyson instead of Juliet in his school uniform.

"Tyson!" Tala cried, going over to the boy and suddenly putting a hand under the younger boy's chin. "Gosh! You are really pretty, Tyson. You know that? I bet you have a ton of admirers after the two day's running of the play!"

"Admirers?" Tyson asked, appearing a little confused. "No, I don't think—"

"But you are soooo cute, Tyson!" Tala went on. Still holding on to Tyson's chin and tilting it up uncomfortably high, Tala turned to Kai and added, "Don't you think Tyson's cute, Kai?"

Tyson was looking at Kai with eyes that no one could possibly say 'No' to, and it was not even intentional. Kai did not want to say 'No' anyway, because that would be a lie. Instead he turned away and mumbled, "Whatever."

"Say, Kai," he heard Tyson speak up. "Wanna walk home together like we used to?"

Kai ignored Tala mouthing 'like we used to' to the rest and focused on the bluenette, who had effectively made a mess out of him, flipped him all over the place, and made him question himself the way he never had to before. What was it about this bluenette that could shatter Kai's carefully constructed cold demeanour and knock down the walls he'd painstakingly built?

The word was out before he could stop himself: "Sure."

Something told him party poppers were going off and cheers were being hollered by his friends behind him, but he didn't want to turn and see their faces.

"Enjoy your walk, Kai!" Bryan and Tala called out as Kai walked off with Tyson

* * *

The walk went with Tyson chattering beside Kai as usual, mainly about the two days of the play and how it was like on stage, how nervous he was, how he couldn't see the faces of those in the audience, save for those sitting in the front row, and how (to Kai's secret amusement) he actually liked his dress, but couldn't say the same for the manicure and tiresome hairstyling.

"We are going to put the play up again for another two days," Tyson explained to Kai finally. "It is going to span the whole of next weekend."

"That popular?" asked Kai, only briefly glancing at Tyson.

"No, that's not it. You know the guy everyone calls Crusher?" Tyson asked in turn, looking at Kai. When Kai nodded, he went on, "You see, his sister is undergoing treatment for leukemia. He is one of the stage hands for the play and a scholarship student like me. So anyway, I thought, we could perform the play for the public and help him out you know?"

It struck Kai that this was just the sort of thing for Tyson to do and couldn't help smiling a little to himself.

"You think Crusher will be fine with charity?"

"Sometimes, you got to put aside pride for someone you love, Kai," Tyson explained, not looking at his companion but up at the quickly gathering dusk.

Kai glanced at Tyson again, but said nothing.

"Robert was really nice," Tyson said suddenly, sounding, to Kai, almost dreamy. "He said we can perform at the opera house his parents owned and offered to be in charge of invitations—we need VIPs, you see—and the ticketing."

Kai felt the prick. So Robert was nice to Tyson… Of course, Robert had the right personality, the right connections. Robert was quite the gentleman and Robert would dance with Tyson. Robert could charm Tyson. What could Kai Hiwatari do?

"And Brooklyn was for the idea a hundred percent!" Tyson cried excitedly. "He even organised additional rehearsals 'cause we will need to do even better since some really important people are coming to watch."

Yes, Brooklyn. What could Kai Hiwatari do?

Kai became aware of his repeated self-evaluation and felt annoyed at himself. His annoyance unfortunately showed on his expression causing Tyson to quiet down for a while. Maybe, Kai doesn't like Brooklyn, Tyson thought uneasily.

They went past Tyson's house and, before Kai realised the mistake, were approaching the tall gates of Kai's mansion.

"Tyson—" Kai started to protest but was immediately cut off by the bluenette, walking on and not looking at Kai as he spoke.

"It would be a good change, Kai."

At the gate, they stopped and found themselves facing each other. There was a little side gate through which Kai would enter to go up the path to his house. Kai suddenly had the idea to invite Tyson over for dinner, only he didn't know how. On all the other occasions Albert was there to invite Tyson for him. Kai felt acutely how socially inept he was. Tyson looking up at him the way he was then---without veil, all steady and sincere---was not helping matters one bit.

In a moment of epiphany, it occurred to Kai that Tyson meant more to him than anything else in the world. That was why he kept every single gift Tyson gave him, even if they were miniature furniture sets he knew he didn't need. That was why the boy-Kai worried, as only Kai could worry in true Kai-style, about birthday presents for the bluenette. That was why he hated it when boys in school hung around Tyson so much and hated how Brooklyn and Robert were both trying to sidle up close to the younger boy. That was why something, perhaps his heart, perhaps his spleen, broke when he saw Brooklyn kiss Tyson.

Tyson had always been special in the way he stood up for others, especially back when they were younger, and when someone was in need of help, Tyson was always the first to lend a hand. No matter where he was or what he was doing, he always made sure that he enjoyed himself. No matter the walls Kai built, no matter with what immutable material, Tyson was always able to find a way through.

Kai could never do that. What could Kai Hiwatari do? What could Kai Hiwatari do indeed?

Right then, Kai had the urge to lean down to Tyson and take, just for a while, what had been stolen from him on stage some days before. Maybe he would take Tyson into his arms and press him close. Maybe, just maybe he could forget he was Kai Hiwatari for once, forget what it _meant_ to be Kai Hiwatari.

Without thinking he had his hand on Tyson's cheek and that was the first time he had touched the boy since their past playground fights. The cheek was dark against his pale hand and he found that it was soft, very, very soft…as if puberty never happened. Brown eyes stared up at him, widened with surprise though, in doing so, it perhaps beckoned to Kai as well.

"Kai?"

Kai only shook his head, desiring Tyson to speak no more, and pressed his forehead against the bluenette's. Tyson did not jump back as Kai half-expected him to. Instead he took a step towards Kai and Kai knew, despite the cloud that marred his usual caution and rationale, that if they sealed it all then, they were both going to tumble into an abyss they couldn't climb out of. A smart person, in full knowledge of the implications would stop and take a step back, explain that it was all a mistake. But Kai, despite knowing _his _situation, was not feeling very smart then. He pressed a hand to Tyson's back and pulled the hazy-eyed bluenette closer to him.

No turning back.

The sound of a car screeching to a halt at the gate caused them to pull away from each other. For a while, all either could do was stare at each other as if they had just committed the biggest sacrilege in the world. Tyson stood muted, his eyes couldn't have been bigger, his heart pounding in his chest. Kai was in no better shape, and his mouth opened sporadically, trying to bring out words but those words, whatever they may be, would not come. Kai wanted to apologise, he wanted to shout, he wanted to curse and swear, he wanted to confess everything he'd ever felt, he wanted to call out to the universe to stop time just for them…

"Kai."

Neither of them heard the car door open, what more see the elderly man climb out of it. When they broke their gazes and turned, Tyson saw the burly man, about his own grandfather's age, standing by the immaculately shiny black car in his equally impeccable suit, his hands resting on the golden knob of his ivory cane. Kai stared at the man, not knowing who he was for a while.

It was the man who had called out to Kai the second time Kai heard his name called and as his mental cloud cleared, Kai saw his grandfather and the steady way the eyes of the elder Hiwatari was taking him in.

"Just came back from school, Kai?" the elder Hiwatari asked, though his tone was by no means conversational.

It was just a question and yet it had the potential to make anyone nervous, yet under the man's gaze, Kai did not falter, only said, "Grandfather."

Unperturbed the elder Hiwatari asked again, "Why didn't you take the car?"

"I…" Kai trailed off, looking back at Tyson, his mind racing questions about what he ought to do and whether his grandfather had seen what had passed, or _nearly_ passed between Tyson and himself. Turning back to his grandfather, Kai replied, "I prefer walking."

"Get into the car, Kai," Voltaire told his grandson. It was more of a command than anything else. "The driver will drive you in."

For a moment, no one moved and Kai perceived the sound of the wind mocking life around him. In time, he turned his body a little and indicated Tyson to his grandfather. "This…this is Tyson," Kai said by way of introduction.

"Nice to meet you, sir," Tyson chirped, going up to extend his hand to the elder gentleman even if everything _was_ unnerving.

His own grandfather would have taken that hand and pumped it up and down with an energy that belied his age, however, Voltaire Hiwatari did not even look down at the hand as he climbed back into the car without so much as a glance at Tyson. It took Tyson a moment to understand what was going on and once he comprehended where he stood with the elder Hiwatari, he lowered his hand and clenched it by his side.

Kai made to leave but hesitated and looked back at Tyson. When Tyson turned his eyes away from the car and looked at Kai, the latter found that the gaze was the hardest one he'd ever had to meet. Kai felt aghast. He knew how his grandfather could be, but to act like Tyson was less than human…

Kai tried to open his mouth to apologise but no words could he form. As for Tyson, he saw clearly the chasm that gaped between Kai and himself, the chasm none of them could cross. It would have been bad if Tyson had been a girl of inferior birth (as compared to the Hiwatari family), but it was ten times worse that he was a young _man_ of inferior birth.

In time and with much effort he grinned.

"Hey, I shall not disturb your family reunion and be on my way," he said, already starting to walk backwards towards his house on the lesser side of the neighbourhood. "See you in school, Kai!"

Kai watched with not a little pain as Tyson turned and hurried off. At the persistent tug of his grandfather's gaze, Kai took his eyes away from the road and walked towards the car, his world suddenly spiraling into bedlam.

Once Tyson heard the car door slam shut, he started running. He did not even bother looking back to make sure that Kai was still not standing there to see him. Tyson cursed his stupidity as he ran past his house and turned into the town. He didn't feel like going home too early that day.

He had one question to think about: Why a Hiwatari?

* * *

If anyone had stepped into the second Hiwatari mansion, they would have guessed that the elder Hiwatari was home even without meeting with the said person. The atmosphere was that of rigid orderliness and the servants did not even dare look at each other as they passed in the corridors, what more strike up a conversation among themselves. It was as if the walls were staring at them to make sure they performed their duties to perfection. Albert did not straighten up from his welcome bow until he heard his name being called by the elder Hiwatari.

Dinner was a silent affair. Voltaire sat at the head of the long table, with Kai a few seats on his adjacent left. All that was heard was the clink of silverware and the occasional serving and pouring of food and drinks. Kai felt that it stretched for hours and while usually he barely tasted his food, during that dinner, he tasted it even less.

When it was over, Voltaire laced his fingers together, elbows resting on the table, as the servants cleared the remains of dinner away, and leveled his gaze once more on Kai who had taken to studying the patterns on the ornate placemat before him.

The old man reached for his glass of wine and asked casually, "Who was that boy outside the gate with you just now?"

Kai met his grandfather's eyes briefly before replying, "Tyson."

"What's his family?" Voltaire went on, swirling the wine in his glass as he did so.

"Granger."

"Never heard of them," Voltaire declared dismissively. "Not business people, are they?"

"His grandfather has a dojo. Teaches _kendo._ His brother is a teacher in my college and his father is a professor at a university in the city."

Voltaire let out a snort. "Salary men."

Kai clenched his jaw and said nothing.

"How could he afford the school fees in your college?"

"He…" Kai found it hard to reveal. "He's on scholarship."

"A charity boy," Voltaire sniffed. Leaning back in his chair, he went on, "The standard of your college has dropped a significant amount if they are allowing that sort of rat-bag in."

"They only give out ten scholarships every year," Kai couldn't help but argue.

"I thought that the college would be good for you, Kai, but it seemed that it does not hold anything for you anymore." Voltaire looked at Kai. "It is time you move to the first Hiwatari mansion."

Kai sat up straighter and could not help but stare at his grandfather in horror.

"This place will be sold—" his grandfather went on.

"And the mansion staff?" Kai demanded to know.

"Naturally, they will be told to take a permanent holiday."

"You _can't _do that!" Kai was not in the habit of raising his voice to his grandfather but right then he could not help himself. There were some of the serving staff lined up behind him and yet Voltaire could say it all so easily without even batting an eyelid.

Voltaire stared at his grandson before saying, "If you move to the first Hiwatari mansion, there will be no need for them or this mansion. Over there, you will be enrolled into the finest college which will prepare you for the university of my choice. It is also easier for you to integrate into the Hiwatari business."

He paused and settled back into his chair. "It is time you learn the ropes, Kai. Your father never had a chance to and you wouldn't want to fail him, do you? And be a _weak link_?"

There. Voltaire always knew when to pull it out and use it against Kai: his father's unfulfilled dream, the fact that Kai Hiwatari was his father's son, the sole heir to the Hiwatari business empire, and also, the one with the greatest potential to be the family's weak link.

"You will meet a pretty _girl_ there," Voltaire continued, casting the briefest of glances Kai's way. "Not in that college full of…_funny _boys."

Kai's hands clenched into fists where they rested on his lap under the table. He did not lift his eyes from the tabletop for fear that seeing his grandfather's face might make him punch the old man.

It was no pretty girl he wanted…but siring an heir for the next generation was part of the future that loomed before him. Even as he came to terms, painfully slow, with how he felt…about the college…about Tyson, about what he wished he could have, could do, there was in his consciousness what it meant to be Kai _Hiwatari_.

"We will be leaving by the end of the next week, Kai."

Voltaire it seemed could only talk in commands and rhetoric.

_By the end of the next week… _Kai clenched his hands tighter.

"Everything will be settled by then and it will give you ample time to pack." Voltaire paused and looked at his grandson who, since the conversation took the particular turn, had not lifted his eyes from the tabletop. "You will be coming, Kai."

Kai let out a breath and loosened his hands. To run the family empire, to be his father's son, that was what he wanted, wasn't it? _That _was why he had been holding himself back all these times…with his friends…with Tyson….

Tyson…_Granger_.

"Yes, I will, grandfather."

With that he pushed himself away from the table and muttering a barely audible "Excuse me" strode out of the dining room. On the way out, he went past Albert but didn't dare meet the butler's eyes.

* * *

**Next Chapter: Decision**


	13. Decision

**Disclaimer: **As of the other chapters.

**Author's Message: **Thank you all for the reviews/reactions to the previous chapter. I'm sorry I couldn't upload this sooner. I have this habit of looking over chapters with something like paranoia broiling in me, not to mention the assignment of which deadline is approaching. (Gargh!) Anyway, I do hope you enjoy this chapter! :)

* * *

**Chapter 12: Decision**

**

* * *

**

It took a whole of a week but Kai eventually found himself cornered at his locker by his friends.

He was only putting a book into his locker when, upon closing it, he perceived to his right Tala leaning a shoulder against the neighbouring locker, arms crossed over his chest, looking about ready to launch into a confrontation.

"Heard you're going on a vacation, Kai," he remarked casually, though if anyone knew Tala, the tone indicated that it was anything but casual. When Kai did not respond, Tala went on, "A really long one."

"Make that permanent," Bryan spoke up, leaning his back in turn on the locker across the one Tala was leaning against and effectively blocking Kai's escape route to the left. He, too, had his arms crossed.

With Ray and Spencer flanking him, Kai saw no way out of it.

"How did you hear about it?" he asked, not looking at Tala.

Tala shrugged and waved a hand about as he replied, "You know the business world. Your grandfather…my dad…word gets around."

"Hn." And Kai tried to squeeze past Bryan and Ray.

Bryan lashed out a hand and yanked Kai back by the shoulder so hard that his back banged into the locker behind him. Bryan then pressed an arm down on Kai's chest, pinning him to the locker, as Tala drew in close.

"So this is how it is, huh?" Tala demanded, not taking his eyes off Kai who still wasn't looking at him. "You with us and then you just walk out without telling us anything? What are we? Business _connections_?"

"I can't help but agree, Kai," Spencer spoke up in that mild way of his, not budging from his spot.

"Yeah, we're friends, aren't we? We're even teammates on the soccer team," said Ray. "If you really need to go away, then the least you could have done was to tell us and not just plan on buggering off at the end of the week."

"Let go of me," Kai told them through gritted teeth.

"We're friends, Kai," Ray reiterated after a while and after Kai was freed of Bryan's grip. "We're sorry we kind of overreacted, but we only wanted to know what is going on in your life. You never mentioned anything about going away or what your grandfather's expectations of you are… So much about your life is a mystery because you don't talk about things that matter."

Kai looked at Ray and folded his arms.

"There is nothing to tell."

"You did not make this decision on your own," Tala said.

Kai whipped his head around and snapped, "Just leave me alone, Ivanov!"

"That is a fine way to treat a friend I'm sure!" Tala hissed into Kai's face. "You just want to get through all this and go be the next great Hiwatari regardless of who the people in your life are...were. I was right; you have always been Voltaire's ass-licker."

Kai tucked his book under his arm, pushed his fists into the pockets of his blazer and started to walk away. However, Tala was not quite done with his lecture. He lashed out a hand and grabbed Kai by the nearest elbow. Kai was tugged back a bit but easily pulled himself forward and broke the contact. He grabbed his book and didn't know why he broke into a run, but run he did.

Tala was calling out behind him. "Hey, Kai! Come back here! I am not done with you!" But Kai kept running.

For the rest of the day, Kai skipped his classes, spending his time lying on his back on the rooftop of the school building instead. He was surprised to find a cat there, licking a front paw before rubbing it against its ear. It did this systematically, first with the right paw to the right ear, then later with the left paw to the left ear, and Kai watched.

In time it looked up and he called out, feeling pleasantly surprised when it actually trotted up to him and mewed. Thinking that it was hungry, Kai snuck down for a while to buy a carton of milk and managed to fashion a bowl out of the lunchbox he had lying around in his locker. The cat lapped up the milk hungrily and Kai watched.

There was something serene about watching animals feed. They completely ignore you, choosing instead to focus all their attention on their food. Watching the cat drink, Kai felt himself relax. He reached out a hand and tried to pet the cat. It jumped back and with an annoyed mew darted out of his sight.

Caught off guard, Kai was not able to say anything at first, but then seeing it poking its head out from its hiding place, Kai fell back to staring at the sky, saying, "Huh! What a grouch!"

In time the cat came back to feed and Kai didn't try to touch it. Not everyone was like Tyson, who could be disturbed from his food and still be cheerful.

Tyson.

Kai didn't know how both Tyson and himself were reacting to that day's episode. Surely, Tyson had not missed the fact that Kai had tried to kiss him. Kai had not missed the fact that Tyson had responded in kind. Despite it being what it was—the kiss that never happened—Kai held on to it like it was something precious, like it was his only glimmer of hope. But who could forget that all hope was gone, _had been _gone right from the start? Kai did not know what to make of anything, what to do. Kai did not even know what he wanted.

He was bad with words, to the point that everyone around him became used to taking physical cues---a nod here, a grunt there---to decipher what he was trying to communicate. He was happy to just let them.

Strangely, the only other person besides Albert, who could read Kai's cues almost perfectly, was Tyson, even though the boy was not physically with Kai for a good part of their lives. When they met again, Tyson seemed only to pick up where he left off and they settled into a friendly familiarity so easily.

Kai knew, at least he knew this for sure, that he was not going to be satisfied with mere friendship, but to bring it any further was impossible. He tried to push it all away, but Tyson's magnetism was not to be taken lightly. Kai had found himself spiraling down, down, down and was spiraling down still into that well of emotion, heartfelt, but to which he could attach no name. Yet, the only tangible end he could foresee for himself was a life married to some rich "pretty girl" he didn't care for and sitting at the head of the Hiwatari business empire, slowly aging into the next iron-fisted, perpetually frowning elder Hiwatari. This was the future that he had been told was for him since he was a child and it seemed like it was all going in that very direction.

Kai did not want to go to school the next day. He didn't feel like it. However, he had a choice between staying at home with his grandfather, and going to school and facing everyone else. He chose the latter. At least, he could give people in school his famous glare and trust them to leave him alone. He couldn't do that to or with his grandfather.

He opted to set out early and walk to school instead of being driven. His grandfather thought it a preposterous idea for how could the future heir to the biggest business empire around walk like a commoner! Kai slipped out without his grandfather knowing.

Kai had fully planned on taking the longer route in order to avoid passing by Tyson's house, for fear that maybe Tyson was on his way to school already or was outside his gate doing stretching exercises. (Kai didn't know Tyson's morning routines, so he was only guessing.) However, the moment Kai spotted the familiar roof from a distance, his legs carried him to it and he did not try to stop himself. It was as if _this _constituted his morning routine: passing by that house and looking at it, never mind if he didn't see anyone, just look at it and be content knowing that Tyson still lived within it.

As he neared the house, his steps slowed to an amble and Kai looked up at the house. No one seemed to be up. Perhaps he was expecting to hear the sound of running feet upon the wooden floor and a familiar voice frantically crying out how late he would be. The house was still and Kai felt strangely disappointed.

He didn't realise that he had stopped right outside the gate until it was pushed open, creaking quietly on its hinges, startling him out of his thoughts.

"Kai?"

Kai cursed himself inwardly at the sound of that voice. Tyson stood just outside the gate, staring at him. His hair was still a little wet, probably from a morning shower, and because of that, he did not have it tied up. Tyson had his usual bag slung over his body and in one hand he had a textbook.

For a moment none of them so much as breathed. Since the incident of that day, they had not spoken to each other in school. While Kai sometimes stole furtive glances at Tyson's back from where he sat in class, Tyson always sat rigidly, keeping his eyes on the board. After the last class, Tyson was always the first one to leave and Kai one of the last. When they passed each other in the corridors, Tyson looked straight ahead while Kai would focus on a spot on the floor, his bangs falling into his eyes to shield them. If Kai's friends had noticed the tension in the relationship between Tyson and himself during the week before they knew of his leaving, they were definitely not being nosy about it.

Finally, Tyson turned to close the gate, breaking the silence.

"I thought you are usually driven to school," Tyson said, walking over to Kai.

"I didn't want to sit in the car," Kai told the younger boy. He couldn't admit anything else. What else could he say indeed? _I wanted to admire your house_, didn't seem like the smartest thing to say then.

"Like I said once before: If you miss me, just say so, Kai!" Tyson said jokingly and landed a punch on Kai's arm. "Shall we walk?"

Kai gave a brief nod and they started to walk. The silences between them were never uncomfortable before, but then the silence carried with it the burdens of questions unasked and confessions fallen dead on lips that could not move to speak the truth when it mattered. Kai fancied that Tyson was walking further away from him than usual. Other times, their arms would sometimes brush against each other as they walked and conversed. Right then, there were perhaps five hand's length of space stretching between them. Kai felt the absurd urge to reach out and close his hand around Tyson's own which was swinging freely just a little beyond his reach. To quell that urge, he balled his hand into a fist and shoved it down his blazer pocket.

"Say, Kai," Tyson spoke up suddenly. "Did you study for the Math test today?"

Kai looked at Tyson, suddenly surprised. He had not known of any Math tests. Why, of course he hadn't. He was on the roof the whole of yesterday skipping classes. Trust Tala and gang to not tell him about important things when they're pissed.

"I figured as much," Tyson said, turning to him and grinning. "You were not even in class yesterday!"

"Skipped them all," Kai added.

"Uh huh," conceded Tyson. "You were on the roof. I saw the tuft of your hair while I was eating lunch with Max and Kenny at the field. You could recognise that tuft anywhere!"

Tyson reached out and swiped at it. Kai managed to prevent Tyson from destroying his morning's effort by ducking just in time.

Tyson laughed and Kai watched him laugh, feeling himself drawn yet again by that laughter, feeling it envelope him like an old, comfortable blanket.

Suddenly, Tyson stopped and turned away. "Sorry I didn't call you up to tell you or anything. I thought you might be…busy."

"With what?" Kai asked, almost too sharply.

He saw Tyson turn to him again, grinning.

"Spending quality time with your grandfather?"

"No. I wasn't," confessed Kai, turning away. "Never had."

Tyson fell silent for a while and they continued walking without saying anything to each other for some distance.

Then he spoke again, his voice uncharacteristically quiet, "So you're going away."

Kai saw no other way out of it but to tell the truth: "Transferring out."

"I see."

They didn't say another word and kept on walking. The school gate was already in sight, the clock tower looming up just above it, the long and short hands showing that they were still early. Some students could be seen arriving on their bicycles or stepping out of cars. Still few were going through the gate, most of the early birds choosing to stand outside in small clusters, greeting each other and laughing their morning lethargy away. The world seemed so normal even as his, Kai felt, was crumbling around him. He couldn't help the slowly rising scorn and he was sure that his face was carefully working itself into the cold mask that was, and had been for a long time, his trademark.

"Man Kai, you could use a smile or two once in a while," he heard Tyson say from beside him. Kai turned to see the bluenette peering intently up into his face as they walked in perfect synchrony. "Your face is how my milk looks after it had been left on the counter overnight."

Kai snorted. He couldn't help himself. He thought it was quite funny, somehow. Tyson laughed.

"Anyway," Tyson began, shoving his hands into his blazer pockets and suddenly picking up his pace so that all Kai could see of him was his slim back. What he said next came out so soft that Kai almost couldn't hear it: "Just make sure we'll still be pals, 'kay?"

Kai's movements stopped and he stood there staring at Tyson's back. Something was ripping at him from the inside, shredding him. It made his throat hurt and his nose felt funny.

"You are so screwed for the test, Kai!"

Tyson had looked over his shoulder at Kai, grinning almost maliciously. Then assuming a superior air he added, "Maybe I can teach you in whatever little time we have before Math!"

Kai must have been staring with his mouth gaping slightly open because he distinctly felt himself closing it with a snap.

"Just tell me the topics, Granger." And he started to walk, feeling deeply annoyed and strangely angry.

Tyson guffawed and did so. "I am so beating you in this test, Hiwatari!" Tyson declared when he was done.

"Oh yeah?" challenged Kai, glaring at Tyson.

"Yeah, and you will eat my dust!" and with that, Tyson took off running towards the school gate where he saw Max and Kenny waiting just inside it.

Max was with Ray, standing close but perhaps both were too shy to do anything more than…well, standing too close. Ray watched Kai walk through the gate, a long moment after Tyson had crossed it at breakneck speed. Kai lifted his head at the young man and issued a nod. Ray smiled, flashing his fanged teeth, and nodded back.

The lot of them started walking towards the main school building. Three people separated Kai from Tyson but perhaps, thought Kai, it was for the best.

Kai met Tala, Bryan and Spencer at the lockers, and nodded a greeting. He was secretly glad when Tala and Bryan nodded back. Spencer was as docile as ever when it came to such matters and was more bent on ranting about how someone was at it with his pea plants, and how all the peas were gone. However, Kai constantly felt that they were all watching him whenever his back was turned. He was already looking forward to the end of the school day.

The next few days everyone noticed that Kai was preoccupied and that he came to school with Tyson everyday, except that one day when it rained and Kai _had _to take the car. Kai's preoccupation was usually hard to detect because he somehow appeared the same with or without it. Lately though, his friends noticed that he wasn't even listening to the things they were saying and that his eyes followed Tyson whenever the younger boy was within sight. His friends said nothing. They had all come to a silent concession that they would leave Kai's personal life to the latter, however frustrating it was to watch and accept.

Kai saw the poster for the charity performance of the play on his way to the bathroom in the middle of Math class. There was nobody in the corridor, so he stopped and looked at the poster. Tyson and Brooklyn took center stage in the poster just as they did in the play. It was a shot of their side profiles, blown up and rendered translucent so that it could show the stage and the balcony scene in the background through them. Tyson, dressed as Juliet had his eyes closed, tilting his head up toward Brooklyn, as Romeo with his ridiculous hat, as the older boy planted a kiss on his forehead. The two of them looked so blissful, so happy and so in love.

A loud thud and a throbbing hand later, Kai realised that without thinking, he had lashed out a fist and slammed it against the poster, right over Brooklyn's face.

As if life wanted to torment him, Kai later walked past the black box studio on his way to the field for soccer practice. He didn't know what compelled him to stop and stare at the entrance to the studio. A hand-written sign on the door said, "Rehearsal in Progress". His legs didn't follow his mind's behest to leave and make way to the field. Instead, they took him through the door, down a short corridor and finally through another door on the other side of which Kai found himself standing in a corner of a space that literally looked like the interior of a black box.

There were no seats but in the center of the studio, the drama members were gathered, some reading lines while sprawled on the floor and others acting their parts in clusters. Kai scanned the studio for the one face he must have been brought by impulse to see. He spotted that face easily enough. Tyson was being held by the waist by Brooklyn who had one of Tyson's hand outstretched and Tyson's back bent backwards as if they had paused in the middle of a dance number. Tyson was bent so low that the end of his ponytail touched the floor and he looked a little bewildered. Brooklyn, however, was looking like he was out to seduce, his face close to Tyson's own and whispering something that Kai couldn't hear from that distance. Whatever it was that he had said, it made Tyson blush furiously, and Kai, furious.

With a laugh, Brooklyn pulled Tyson back up and did a little tango number before twirling him and ending the dance. Tyson, appearing not to have noticed Kai, straightened the white sweater he was wearing over his school shirt. Kai quickly darted out of the inner studio door, but he was not quick enough for Brooklyn not to spot him.

The next thing Kai knew was that he heard his name being called as he was hurrying, as only Kai could hurry, down the corridor. He turned, half-expecting Tyson even though he recognised the voice which called him. He stopped and only looked over his shoulder at Brooklyn who came to a halt just behind him.

"Nice of you to pop by the studio, Kai. Here to watch our rehearsal?" Brooklyn asked.

Kai could hear the maddeningly serene smile in the young man's voice. He turned full around but said nothing.

Brooklyn started circling Kai slowly as he spoke, his arms outstretched as if to receive a hug.

"Shakespeare wrote in one of his plays: '_All the world's a stage, and all the men and women, merely Players_' [1]. If you want something, Kai, really want something, or should I say, some_one_, you will have to play. You will have to put everything into your game, as if you are battling against a powerful opponent, against someone you cannot lose to."

"What are you yapping about, Brooklyn?" Kai asked coldly.

Brooklyn stopped circling, drew back, the smile once more on his face.

"That was a hint, Kai," he said after a moment of study. "A HUGE hint."

Kai turned and left. For a while he thought Brooklyn, too, would leave, but he heard the young man say, "Am I really someone you want to lose to?"

Kai's hand was on the outer door, about to push it open so that he could step outside into the main corridor of the school, but it paused there for a while before it pushed and the door swung open.

When he reached home after soccer practice, Kai was summoned to the study which had become Voltaire's private throne room for the period of time he was staying at the second mansion. As Kai walked to the study, he tried not to see the packing and cleaning that was going on around him. Already some rooms had their furniture covered in white cloth, the sitting room for example, where he had spent time with Tyson reading the script.

He knocked on the study door and waited until he was bid to enter. Inside he found Voltaire looking every bit the patriarch as he sat behind the table, holding a silver envelope and reading the slim slips of card which only before had been in it.

"It seemed our flight will have to be postponed to the following Monday, Kai," the elder Hiwatari remarked. When Kai did not reply, he waved the cards vaguely. "We have been sent VIP invitations to a play performed by your college."

That caught Kai's attention.

"Which show is it?" he asked.

Voltaire raised an eyebrow at his grandson and replied, "The last performance day, the coming Sunday. Highly inconvenient but, seeing it is the Jurgen family, an important appearance to make."

Voltaire was surprised when Kai excused himself hurriedly and only watched when his grandson darted out of the room.

Kai was suddenly seized by an idea and he needed to set it all in motion…on that last performance day.

In his room, he made sure to lock the door before digging his cell phone out from his bag. He dialed and held the phone to his ear. It was picked up after a significant number of rings and from the sound of it, he figured that Tala and Bryan were in the midst of something.

"What do you want, Hiwatari?" Tala demanded in a fierce series of gasps. There was a persistent creaking in the background and Tala let out a highly restrained cry of Bryan's name. There was a lot of hard breathing going on too.

Kai grimaced. He seriously didn't need to hear all that, what more see images of his _friends_ getting it on.

"Switch off your phone when you are doing _that_ next time," advised Kai. "I need help. Explain to you later. Call me."

It was a whole three hours later that Kai's phone started ringing. He snatched it up and put it to his ear, only to find that he had not pressed the 'Accept' button for the call so it blasted out the metal ringtone directly into his eardrums. Cursing, he accepted the call and put it to his ear.

"I need help," he explained the moment he heard Tala's voice.

* * *

**Next Chapter: **_**Wherefore art thou, Romeo?**_

_**

* * *

**_

Footnote:

[1] _As You Like It_, Act 2, Scene 7


	14. Wherefore art thou, Romeo?

**Disclaimer: **As of the other chapters.

**Author's Message: **Pardon me for the hiatus. I had a deadline to meet for a 5500-word giganta of an essay project, and I have had something of a meltdown recently. A short chapter, too short for the wait that you guys had to go through, but a necessary interlude to the next one. Do enjoy! And thank you for keeping with me!

* * *

**Chapter 13: **_**Wherefore art thou, Romeo?**_

_**

* * *

**_

Anything that could go wrong would go wrong. Was that not Murphy's Law?

Tyson's dress was found to be missing and it sent the whole dressing room into a flurry. Julia was screaming and some of the other actors went around searching for it, clad only in their breeches or corsets. Strangely, Tyson himself was not too fazed by it, seeming a little preoccupied with something. Besides, Julia had bade him, very fiercely, to not move from his spot. So, he only looked around the room at everyone as they peeked under tables, under perfume bottles, and into other impossible places, before turning back to the mirror and staring at his reflection.

This was the last night of his performance as Juliet and he ought to be feeling a bittersweet sort of excitement since it was all going to end—the time he spent with the cast and crew, all of them having been through a thick experience, and those few magical hours on stage when he was someone else, someone who was a young woman. However, something weighed heavy on his mind and he could not find it in himself to feel the least bit excited.

"Ah!" Julia's cry was the cue for him to focus on the situation at hand. To his quiet relief, Julia came to his side with the dress. Apparently someone had packed it wrongly, putting the dress where the maids' dresses were and not in its usual place of honour, in its own special box.

"Now, let's get back to transforming you shall we?" Julia asked cheerily.

In the midst of all the powdering, breeching and corseting, all the fluff and feathers, Tyson saw himself transform and set his mind to being Juliet for one last night.

* * *

Brooklyn had a dressing room all to himself. He particularly requested it. Surely the lead actor and the president of the club could not be sharing a room with all those other actors, exposing his sacred body to their admiring scrutiny. He never heard of such a thing! So a room for himself it was and in it, right when the common dressing room was in panic, he was being costumed in his Romeo garb by his very own dresser, (someone who helped him dress, and not the furniture).

He was only about to put on the shirt when the door to the room rattled and burst open to reveal the hulking figure of Spencer in the doorway, holding on to the doorknob. He stepped into the room and behind him followed a few others: Tala, Bryan, Ray and finally, calmly walking in with his arms crossed over his chest, his eyes fixed with the glare that he was famous for, Kai.

"What is the meaning of this?" Brooklyn demanded, quickly closing his open shirt to protect his modesty.

Kai turned around and closed the door with little hurry.

Tala spoke up as he took a step towards the suddenly vulnerable Brooklyn, grinning impishly as he spoke, "Take off your shirt and step out of your drawers."

The boy who was helping Brooklyn with his costume took in the four rather menacing-looking boys barring the way to the door and stepped away from Brooklyn before trying his best to blend into the wall as far away from the boys as the room would allow. Brooklyn, however, remained rooted where he stood, staring at Kai and gang with growing fear.

"W…what?" he exclaimed, holding his shirt close even tighter. "Y…you're not serious, right? Y…y…you're all going to do _that _t…to me? Y…you'll be—"

No one had seen Brooklyn anything but serene. However, right then, Brooklyn actually sounded hysterical. Tala and Bryan rolled their eyes and stepped up to him.

"We're not going to gang-bang you or anything. Trust me, none of us would be tempted even if you're the last man on earth and there are no goats. Now, take off your clothes!" said Tala.

"No! I protest! I—"

Brooklyn couldn't have said anything else. Not with all of them, Tala, Bryan, Ray, Spencer and Kai, surrounding him like that. The next thing he knew was the door to the small janitor's cupboard slamming shut in his face and that he was standing in his boxers in that dark, claustrophobic space. His hands were bound behind his back and he was gagged for good measure. He could kick but that would mean having to fall gracelessly onto the hard, dirty floor. Oh, what was a prima donna to do?

Tala wiped his hands against each other and said cheerfully to Spencer, who had helped him drag the Drama Club president to the closet, "Well, that takes care of him. I've wanted to do that my whole life."

Back in the dressing room, Kai was contemplating the costume because honestly, he did not have any idea as to how he was to go about putting them on…and in what order. A slight movement in the corner made him look and he perceived, for the first time, the boy who had somehow become Brooklyn's personal dresser. The poor boy visibly flinched when he saw Kai turn to him. The dual-haired young man had quite a reputation in the school and from what the boy heard, he was not someone to be displeased.

"Hey," Kai called. The boy flinched even more visibly. Kai stared at the boy, thinking for the first time how he had such a negative effect on others who did not know him. He took a deep breath and attempted to make his voice gentler. He thought of the play and why he was there. It all came out easier than he thought.

"There is someone out there in the play, okay? I need to play Romeo tonight," he told the boy. He saw the boy straighten up, the initial expression of fear slowly being replaced by a quiet understanding. The boy took a step up to Kai and nodded. Then he got to work.

As it turned out Brooklyn and Kai weren't all that much different in terms of size. Brooklyn was taller but a few quick stitches by the boy and Kai was wearing the costume as if he had been wearing it all his life.

There was a round of applause from behind him. Kai looked in the mirror at his friends behind him.

"Looking good, Kai!" Tala drawled, having returned with Spencer while Kai was being dressed. "Tyson cannot refuse!"

Kai was about to return Tala's comment with a cutting remark but a knock on the door interrupted him. The door opened and a head poked through. Romero was about to speak but when he saw who was in the Romeo costume, words died in his throat for a moment. Everyone thought he was going to protest, create a scene and demand for Brooklyn. They were all ready to say something in Kai's defense. However, Romero's eyes narrowed and with that sly, knowing smile, he looked almost sleazy.

"Ah! Mister Hiwatari," he said. "I didn't know you act!"

Kai would direly love to be rude but this man had the authority to bar him from going onstage and right then he needed to be onstage. Romero probably knew this, along with some other things too, being the perceptive literature and drama teacher that he was.

When Kai chose not to speak, Romero stepped into the room and his demeanour changed to a seriousness no one had seen before. Even Tala could not find anything to say to it.

"Do you know the script, Mister Hiwatari?" Romero asked.

This was no time to want to seem tough. Kai returned Romero's gaze with equal sobriety and replied, "Every word."

Satisfied with the answer, Romero smiled his usual smile and opened the door wider as an invitation for Kai to step out.

"The cast are all waiting backstage. You need to get going," he told Kai before adding, "break a leg."

Kai started to walk to the door but Romero interjected, leaning in and added, "Oh! Act 1, Scene 5."

The dual-haired young man understood immediately and started to walk again. Only this time, an uncertain voice called out to him. He stopped once more and turned to look at the boy who had helped him with the costume.

"Uh…Mister…" the boy began.

"It's Kai," Kai said.

"Yeah…break a leg."

The slight curve of Kai's lips could have been a smile, a mere contemplation on his part, or an attempt to quell the butterflies in his stomach. Actions could be hard to decipher, so Kai only said curtly, "Thank you" with an affirmative nod before stepping out of the room.

Backstage all the actors were waiting, rolling their shoulders and generally getting into gear to perform. Kai craned his neck to spot a certain bluenette in a gown of gold but could not spot him anywhere. He tried not to let it get to him. All he needed to do was focus on becoming Romeo. He could feel the odd fluttering in his stomach. He had never felt like this before for certainly he had never been in a situation where he had to appear on stage and _act..._in front of so many people.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Kai whipped his head to look at the speaker. It turned out to be Garland, playing Tybalt.

"Where's Brooklyn?" Garland demanded, staring down sharply at Kai. "Don't tell me you are going to act?"

"Brooklyn's busy. I'm Romeo for tonight," Kai said simply.

Garland opened his mouth to say something but the announcement for everyone to switch off their cell phones from beyond the stage curtains indicated that the play was about to begin. The actors hissed out last minutes 'break-a-legs' and even Garland patted Kai on the back with the whispered reply: "Whatever. Break legs and don't screw up."

So began Act 1, Scene 1 with the servants of the house of Capulet kicking start:

"_Gregory, on my word, we'll not carry coals…."_

_

* * *

_

Brooklyn arrived backstage in a state of fury and clad only in his boxers. He swore that his family would hear of what that Hiwatari had done to him. He intended fully to retrieve his costume and play the part of Romeo but with all the time he took to get someone to hear the racket he was making in the janitor's closet and let him out, he had arrived to hear Kai's voice saying Romeo's lines with perfect ease:

"_Why, such is love's transgression._

_Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast,"_

He turned to Romero to try to elicit some sort of sympathy for his plight, or teacher-ly anger at the blatant demonstration of rebellion on the part of Kai and his gang. But all he got out of Romero was a finger held up to lips, desiring him to be quiet.

This was not to be borne! He, BROOKLYN, the President of the Drama Club and their best actor at that, stuck backstage with no role to play? He cast his eyes about the backstage area. He spotted the boy, Kane Yamashita, in his Paris costume and his rapier. A thought crossed his mind and he _had_ to smile at his own brilliance.

He strode up to the boy, who turned to him even before he was close.

"You are on backstage duty today," Brooklyn informed the boy.

* * *

**Next Chapter: "Romeo" and "Juliet"**


	15. “Romeo” and “Juliet”

**Disclaimer: **As of the other chapters AND _Romeo and Juliet_ was written by Shakespeare.

**Author's Note: **Plenty of quoted Shakespeare here so there might be some confusion. For parts that I quoted more than two lines, I retained the poetic verse form. So I hope you guys still get who's saying what.

I interchange the names and play characters a lot throughout the chapter, because (1) they are both who they are and who they act as, and (2) certain happenings within the play itself pertains more to the person rather than the character, as you will see (hopefully). So, no confusion...I hope.

Now enjoy, and thanks for reading! I'm sure you people will be somewhat relieved/happy by this chapter or perhaps you may get chills running up your spine by immense OOC-ness…but hey! It's THEATRE! :D

**Warnings: **A lot of Shakespeare. Beware!

* * *

**Chapter 14: "**_**Romeo" and "Juliet"**_

_**

* * *

**_

Tyson only joined the group near the end of Act 1, Scene 2, after having had some problems with his dress. The problem had been quickly sorted out, seeing that it was a silly little moment of misplacement, and he arrived just as Scene 2 came to a close. In all the flurry of scene-changing, he was not aware of Kai emerging backstage with Raul as Benvolio. He went about his lines as Juliet gallantly in Scene 3 and barely paid attention to the exchange going onstage in Scene 4, busy as he was preparing for the scene to come. As it were, both Kai and Tyson were kept apart the way the main characters of the play were, during the course of the play until the fateful Scene 5 of the first act.

Kai knew the play by heart and knew that it was only in Scene 5 would he see Tyson for the first time the way Romeo and Juliet would each other in the play. He hoped to see Tyson backstage, but craned his neck as much as he could, he could not seem to spot Tyson in the bustle of scene changing and the throng of characters. Bits of props and players—a feathered hat here, a chair there—kept passing across his vision as he tried to spot a head of midnight blue hair, crimped and styled into the aristocratic half-braid that he had seen it in during the only time he had seen Tyson perform as Juliet on stage. Perhaps it was just as well because if he did see Tyson, he didn't know what he ought to say to him. Kai was bad with words, especially words of his own making.

The cue came for players to be in place and when the party started up, scene 5 began.

Kai had not been to any rehearsals what more rehearsed the play with the cast. He had, from the very beginning of the play, acted on impulse and gut feeling, guided by the actions and lines of the other players. Right then, he was acting just on that impulse and on something else too, something genuine, something strong and resolute. He was weaving through the crowd of party-goers in the onstage masquerade ball setting as he would at any party he was in. And as he would at any party, for being a Hiwatari he often had to attend a number with his grandfather, he sought a corner to be by himself.

It was while weaving through the crowd that he spotted Tyson as Juliet, in character, just accepting a dance with someone in a knight's doublet. Tyson's hair had not been curled for after the panic about the missing dress, Julia only had time to brush it and tie it back into a low ponytail with a ribbon. With the lightly sprayed bangs that fell into his eyes, it was pretty much the way Tyson always wore his long hair. Kai thought about the irony of it. In one impulsive act of bravery, where Kai had decided to show Tyson what his heart felt, what _he _felt, Tyson would appear more like Tyson than Juliet.

Kai stopped a passing servant and asked, _"What lady's that, which doth enrich the hand of yonder knight?"_

If the boy playing the servant was surprised to see Kai, he was professional enough not to show it. Instead, the servant lowered the tray he was carrying and replied with only a quick glance at the said lady, _"I know not sir,"_ before going on his way.

Kai continued to gaze at Tyson as he spoke:

"_O, he doth teach the torches to burn bright!_

_It seems he hangs upon the cheek of night_

_As a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear;_

_Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!_

_So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,_

_As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows._

_The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand,_

_And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand._

_Did my heart love till now? Forswear it, sight!_

_For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night."_

No one in the audience seemed to notice Kai's blunder in the first two lines of that verse where he referred to Juliet as a "he", not even Tala who was listening closely to every word, possibly out of interest and possibly because it was really something to see Kai acting and saying words he would not be caught dead uttering elsewhere. Not even Kai seemed to notice it.

The dance between Tyson and the knight ended. As Tyson curtsied to the knight, Kai took off his mask and made his way to the bluenette just as the conversation, between Tybalt and Lord Capulet, about his presence at the party took place. They eyeballed him as they spoke about what they ought to do about him: Tybalt wanted to fight him, Capulet did not want to ruin the party.

In the midst of the crowd, out of sight from Tybalt and Lord Capulet, Kai took hold of Tyson's hand and the moment their hands touched Tyson turned, fully expecting Brooklyn, only to find himself face to face with Kai. Tyson's eyes held his astonishment and would have rendered the late teen speechless if it wasn't for the fact that the play must go on. There were so many questions he wanted to ask but for now, the words of Juliet would more than suffice.

Kai had never held Tyson's hand the way he did then. If he did dream of it, he had not imagined that it would take place on stage in front of an audience of a few hundred, in some of the most renowned theatre-house of the region. The world seemed to dissolve around them and their lives became the lives of the two star-crossed lovers of old Verona.

Kai was arrested by Tyson's appearance as Juliet. From a seat in the audience, Juliet had appeared dazzling but up close, he found that the eyes indeed held sweet innocence, the lashes defined and a tinge of the faintest make-up blush touched the cheeks of the younger teen standing before him. He noticed too that a significant amount of skin was exposed by the dress' wide neck and that Tyson had on a little glitter around his eyes.

He tugged Tyson gently to the edge of the stage on stage right, very near the audience. Taking a deep breath he began, holding up Tyson's hand and bringing it to himself as he did:

"_If I profane with my unworthiest hand_

_This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:_

_My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand_

_To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss."_

With that he brought the hand to his lips. He could and would not do that as Kai Hiwatari, he knew, but as Romeo, it all seemed perfectly right. Certainly, as Kai, he would not even ask for such a kiss.

Lifting his free hand to touch Kai's cheek, Tyson began in his Juliet voice:

"_Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,_

_Which mannerly devotion shows in this;_

_For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,_

_And palm to palm is holy palmer's kiss." _

Catching the hand on his cheek, Kai went on, _"Have not saint lips, and holy palmers too?"_

Tyson let out a breathy laugh and replied, _"Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer."_

Leaning in, our dual-haired Romeo said, _"O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do; they pray, 'Grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.'"_

"_Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake,"_ our Juliet said in return.

Kai swallowed and went on, _"Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take."_

With that he leaned and kissed Tyson chastely on the lips. It was Romeo and Juliet's first kiss, as it was theirs. Kai had somehow missed and his lips only met the top of Tyson's own. Tyson tried to respond but he didn't quite know how for he had only taken Brooklyn's kisses passively during the other runs of the play.

Nevertheless, the underlying reality of the moment seemed to be caught by the audience and a collective in-drawing of breath was heard.

Pulling away, Kai continued, _"Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged."_

Looking up at Kai with eyes he could have given no one, Tyson went on more naturally than any other actress could achieve, _"Then take my lips the sin that they have took."_

Kai replied with "_Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly urged! Give me my sin again" _before leaning in again.

This time, Kai did not just kiss chastely. He got Tyson's lips point on and took advantage of the whole situation, deepening the kiss as his hands snaked around the other's waist. Responding more confidently to the kiss, Tyson wound his arms around the older teen's neck and pressed himself closer.

They were reluctant to let go but as they had a play to finish, pulled away still keeping their hands linked.

"_You kiss by the book,"_ Juliet commented a little breathlessly.

Oliver had watched from backstage, noticing everything that was going on, especially the way the two looked at each other. He was almost reluctant to separate them but when the line was said, it was his cue to enter the stage. Oliver as Nurse came rushing up to the couple saying, _"Madam, your mother craves a word with you."_

Juliet pulled away though a lightly tanned hand lingered in a pale one and brown eyes refused to turn away from crimson ones. Then both hand and eyes slipped away with the person to which they belonged.

Romeo watched as Juliet's back wove through the throng of party-goers and only when he could see her no more did he turn to the Nurse. _"What's her mother?"_ he asked.

* * *

At the end of the scene, Tyson was on to Kai within seconds backstage, grabbing hold of both the latter's arms without giving it any notice.

"What are you doing?" Tyson demanded in a hoarse whisper of his own voice, adding a comic element to his dress-clad appearance.

"Playing Romeo," Kai replied easily as the scene changes took place behind him.

"What happened to Brooklyn?" Tyson asked. He tightened his grip on Kai's arms even though Kai made no move to extricate it. Tyson's eyes were too arresting, too captivating to compel Kai to do such a thing. He wanted the kiss all over again.

"Tala locked him up," and before Tyson could say anything more, he placed a hand over Tyson's lips to quiet him. He nodded in a particular direction and added, a little amused, "But he is playing Paris now."

Tyson glanced in the direction Kai had indicated and saw Brooklyn standing in a corner, costumed and glowering at Kai, rapier at ready by his side. Tyson let himself take it all in before turning to Kai again.

The chorus began for the Prologue of Act 2 and Kai leaned down to kiss the back of his own hand which was still over Tyson's mouth. He left Tyson and in a few minutes, his voice was heard coming from the stage: _"Can I go forward when my heart is here? Turn back, dull earth, and find thy centre out."_

Tyson stood rooted backstage staring at the curtain until Romero bustled him out to get ready for the famous balcony scene in Act 2, Scene 2.

* * *

As much as the players, namely Tyson and Kai, wanted to take away the most out of the last running of the play, as it was with much of life, everything went in a blur.

The balcony scene went without a hitch, except Kai couldn't help but wish the Nurse would stop with the _"Madam!"_ each time Tyson was saying something as Juliet. The promise of a marriage made and Tyson was gone from the balcony.

They met backstage a few times but none of them shared more than a word or two between them. Brooklyn kept his eyes closed for most of the play and refused to speak to anyone, seeming to focus his energy on a personal battle he was going to undertake, waiting for his scene to come. If one looked closely though, one could perceive a tiny smirk on his usually serene face.

The play went: A secret marriage. Tybalt's death. Romeo taking leave of Juliet after a night spent together, and Kai stealing a few kisses as he did so. Juliet's refusal to marrying Paris.

And the play just spiraled down to the end everyone expected.

Romeo having entered the chamber and forced open Juliet's tomb, looked down at the figure of Juliet, lying in her dress at the bottom, her hands clasped easily over her stomach. Tyson looked like he was only having a short nap.

"_Stop thy unhallowed toil, vile Montague!"_

Upon hearing that cry Kai, as Romeo, turned to look over his shoulder to see a very menacing looking Brooklyn in his Paris costume blocking the way to the exit, his rapier already out, the end pointing at Kai.

"_Can vengeance be pursued further than death?" _asked Paris, taking a step towards the still kneeling Romeo. _"Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee. Obey, and go with me; for thou must die."_

Romeo turned back to the tomb, to Juliet still at the bottom of it.

"_I must indeed; and therefore came I hither," _he remarked sorrowfully.

"_Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man;_

_Fly hence, and leave me. Think upon these gone;_

_Let them affright thee. I beseech thee, youth,_

_Put not another sin upon my head_

_By urging me to fury. O, be gone!"_

Romeo stood and whipped himself around to look at Paris, still with his rapier raised.

Standing thus, Romeo went on:

"_By heaven, I love thee better than myself;_

_For I come hither armed against myself._

_Stay not, be gone; live, and hereafter say,_

_A madman's mercy bade thee run away."_

Paris was unmoved by Romeo's attempt at mercy.

"_I do defy thy configurations," _he told Romeo, standing his ground and playing the part of the upright citizen to the 'T'. _"And apprehend thee for a felon here."_

Romeo skulked nearer to Paris. There was a sweet sense of satisfaction for Kai to be putting Brooklyn in such a spot and referring to the senior as 'youth'. He drew his rapier slowly, eyeing Brooklyn steadily. In time, he smirked, a near deranged smirk of the despaired.

"_Wilt thou provoke me?" _Romeo snarled, drawing nearer to Paris. Without warning he lunged out at Paris with his rapier, crying, _"Then have at thee, boy!"_

The Drama Club president proved to be trained in the art of swordfight for he raised his rapier in time to counter Romeo's strike.

"You have killed my kin, Juliet's kin, and from sorrow she has expelled her final breath," Brooklyn hissed into Kai's face, their rapiers crossed between their faces. "I will not forgive you for taking her away from me, when we would have been wed!"

Everyone backstage cast puzzled glances at each other, not having read those lines in the script anywhere. Romero watched from the side of the stage, hidden away from the audience, impressed by the believability of the swordfight and the boys' emotions but unsure as to whether or not he ought to interrupt. The boy playing as Paris' page almost forgot his line as the swordfight ensued before his eyes.

"Juliet does not love you!" Kai hissed in turn, breaking away from Brooklyn with a little jump backwards. His rapier threatened to leave his grip but he closed his hand tighter around the hilt. He took another lunge at Brooklyn and cried, "Juliet does _not _love you!"

Brooklyn jumped away in time to avoid the lunge.

Romero took a step forward but still remained hidden from the audience. He was suddenly afraid that having these two face each other on stage was the worse thing to happen to the Jurgen College Drama Club. Those rapiers may not be the real thing but a hard enough thrust could run anyone through.

"You caused so fair and innocent a creature to die and you still dare blaspheme!" cried Brooklyn raining down on Kai a series of blows. Metal met metal in a series of clangs as Kai blocked each blow. "You, sir…" and Brooklyn brought down one particularly hard blow on Kai, getting the younger man square in the shoulder, causing him to winch. "Are…not…worthy of _his_ time!"

The audience, too caught up in the intensity of the swordfight did not notice Brooklyn's own blunder in referring to Juliet as a male. In the tomb, Tyson's eyes shot open. The swordfight between Romeo and Paris was not supposed to have any conversation between them. He was beginning to get worried. He debated "rising from the dead" and interrupting them, thus changing the whole play into a ghost story of sorts, but that did not seem right. He itched to do something, but Juliet must wait her cue to rise.

Brooklyn's last line got Kai where it hurt most because the truth in it was not easy for him to bear. When he could have left Tyson with nothing between them but those few awkward moments, he had to seal it all with this stupid charade.

In a bout of self-directed anger, Kai thrust the rapier through Brooklyn…no, he actually stabbed it through the gap between Brooklyn's arm and the side of his body which faced away from the audience, making it appear as if Brooklyn had really been stabbed. Had Kai not been so upset, he probably would have been surprised that the scene went so well and that he had not killed Brooklyn by accident.

Romero almost ran onto the stage and a gasp ran through the audience as Brooklyn was stabbed. Brooklyn's actions suddenly ceased and for a few seconds, he stood remarkably still, staring down at Kai was he if had lost a battle he was sure he would win. Kai watched Brooklyn, panting from the exertion of the fight he had unintentionally made real. His crimson eyes widened as he took in the shocked expression on Brooklyn's face, suddenly frightened that he had indeed killed Brooklyn for real.

"_O, I am slain!" _cried Brooklyn, dropping to his knees. Looking up at Kai, he pleaded, sounding very much in pain, _"If thou be merciful, open the tomb, lay me with Juliet."_

With that Brooklyn fell forward, the clatter of his rapier when it met the stage floor resonated through the silent theatre, and he remained there unmoving as if truly dead. Although the scene had not ended, the audience clapped, giving Kai a bit of time to think what his next line from the script should be. It was the long monologue before he drinks the poison and dies.

He performed the monologue without further glitch and, for once not feeling jealous, laid Brooklyn down (with some difficulty for Brooklyn was heavy and putting on a good show of being dead) beside Tyson in the tomb. Within the tomb, away from the audience's eyes, Brooklyn turned to Tyson, who was staring at him wide-eyed, and winked. He did it just in time before Kai took hold of Tyson and lifted him halfway out of the tomb so that he could finish his monologue looking at his face.

The monologue was long and Tyson, listening with his eyes closed to Kai performing it, found it somewhat difficult to keep a straight face and not burst out laughing. Finally, Kai got to the part where he drank the poison. With one hand holding Tyson, he removed the stopper of the bottle with a thumb and raising it as if in a toast, he said, _"Here's to my love!"_ before drinking it, finding it to be none other than raspberry cordial, and that it was cloyingly sweet.

"_O true apothecary!" _he went on, trying not to grimace at the sweetness. _"Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die."_

He planted one last kiss on Tyson's lips and fell forward, dead, his body dangling halfway into the tomb, for that was the only logical way he saw to in the play. For a moment, Kai wished that he, too, could buy poison and do away with himself before he left for the Hiwatari first mansion.

With Romeo dead, the play sprung back into action after the paralysis that Kai and Brooklyn's fight had induced. In time, Tyson as Juliet awoke and perceiving Romeo's unmoving form, took himself from the tomb with surprising sprightliness considering the cumbersome dress, and was beside the "dead" figure, cradling the head to his chest.

He kissed Kai's lips for remaining bits of poison, and thought how the raspberry cordial never tasted so sweet before. Finally, he took Kai's dagger and with,"_This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die"_, he fell dead in the final act of sacrifice. He felt forward over Kai's body, heard the faint heartbeat of the other but there was no rise and fall of the other's chest, as if Kai was holding his breath. Unseen by the audience, Kai took the opportunity to raise a hand slightly and hold Tyson with it. The action was almost imperceptible, but Tyson felt the hand at his waist and could not help but take a furtive fistful of Kai's shirt as the exchanges went on between the other characters.

The play closed with Prince Escalus reciting the famous line: _"For never was a story of more woe, than this of Juliet and her Romeo."_

Amidst thunderous applause, Voltaire Hiwatari watched the curtains close. He had been annoyed when Kai was not home when they were about to leave for the play. Later, he received a call from Robert Jurgen's father telling him that Kai would be going ahead and that the Jurgens would be more than glad to have their driver pick him up. Voltaire Hiwatari had declined the offer, preferring the privacy of his own car so that he may better fume over Kai's supposed insolence.

He was more than a little surprised to see Kai on stage. Kai had not told him anything about acting. He considered leaving but with the Jurgen family sitting directly beside him, he had no choice but to stay.

When the play ended, and the supporting cast came on stage to take their bows, Voltaire was in a world of contemplation. He stood up and left before the main cast arrived.

Back stage, right after the final curtain, the rest of the cast was congratulating Kai for his performance. No longer Romeo, Kai was once again Kai and only Kai, so all he said in response to their praises was, "Hn", his arms crossed over his chest, adding something of a comic relief to his Romeo costume. Everyone had to admit that Brooklyn did a fantastic job as Paris, but when everyone wanted to praise him too, the Drama Club president was for once nowhere to be seen.

Tyson watched the crowd surrounding Kai and fell a tug in his chest, though it was not an unpleasant one. Everyone was approaching Kai so candidly, from seniors to juniors who had steered clear of Kai's way in school. Tyson could not help but think that Kai had grown somewhat over these past few months. The announcement came for the cast to come on stage and while the supporting cast made their way out, Tyson went over and took Kai's hand as it was customary in the club apparently for the lovers in a play to come out holding hands.

Or maybe, Tyson was only using it as an excuse, but right then, they didn't care.

The missing Brooklyn came out when his name was announced for his performance as Paris and he took his bow and stood with the supporting cast, not minding it a bit. Everyone got an applause but the applause was louder when the announcer read out the names of the two players for the lead roles. Tyson tugged lightly at Kai's hand and led him on stage, where their appearance was greeted by a series of hoots and catcalls, most likely from Tala and gang.

Once everyone was on stage, they thanked those in charge of the multimedia and took a bow together, before the curtain shut with a profound sense of closure. While no one was looking, while everyone was busy smiling at the standing audience, Kai felt Tyson gave his hand a squeeze before letting go of it.

* * *

**Next Chapter: Exeunt**


	16. Exeunt

**Disclaimer: **As of the other chapters. Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 15: Exeunt**

**

* * *

**

There were refreshments after the performance in the gallery and it allowed the audience to meet the cast or simply for them to mingle amongst each other. Kai did not see his grandfather in the crowd and decided that the elder Hiwatari must have gone home, which meant Kai would have to be doing likewise via cab.

As always with parties, Kai stood in a corner, near a potted plant. His friends had jumped him in Brooklyn's dressing room. He had received their congratulations with not much enthusiasm and they must have sensed it because they told him they would see him at the party before leaving the room. After the door closed on them, Kai spent a long moment looking at himself in the mirror, not taking his Romeo costume off.

To Kai's eyes, the party was nothing but a moving mass of men in suits and women in evening gowns, holding their wine glasses by the top of the stalk, conversing and laughing politely. The chandelier seemed to mock him with their sparkling and nothing in the selection of gourmet finger food enticed his appetite. He would have loved to slip out when he had the chance, but he deigned to remain, he didn't know why.

The group of well-dressed men and women ahead in Kai's line of vision parted and through them came Brooklyn and Tyson. Romero was with them, introducing Tyson, supposedly the "town boy", to a few of those in that group. Tyson did not seem to have seen Kai as he raised a hand in greeting and received their praises with characteristic ease. However, Brooklyn spotted Kai by the plant and for a moment, Kai thought Brooklyn was going to send a glower his way.

Brooklyn turned away and said a few words to the people who were talking to Tyson. They smiled, nodded and moved away. As Kai watched, Brooklyn moved to stand behind Tyson, took the younger teen by the shoulders and, his eyes shielded behind a cover of fiery orange bangs, bodily turned Tyson until the bluenette was facing the direction in which Kai was standing. On seeing him, Tyson's eyes widened in recognition. Kai saw Brooklyn let go of Tyson's shoulders, before giving him a light push towards Kai. Then the senior turned and walked away, disappearing into the crowd like a shadow.

Tyson turned to look for Brooklyn but saw nothing of him even when he craned his neck and stood on tiptoe. Seeing the futility of it, he turned back and made a beeline for Kai. Kai wanted to make a run for it because he was sure he would not know what to say to Tyson, not after what happened that night and not before what was going to happen the next day. But he remained where he was and Tyson was soon standing in front of him, in the shirt and pants Kai had seen him in at the previous after-performance refreshment.

"Hey, Kai," Tyson greeted him quietly.

Kai found that he could not look Tyson in the eye. "Hey," he replied, focusing on a spot of carpet near Tyson's feet.

"Excellent performance today," Tyson went on unperturbed by Kai's behaviour. "Never knew you could act so well."

Tyson chuckled and took a sip of his Coke. Kai took the opportunity to look at Tyson and saw that Tyson was gazing out of the window nearest to them as if he was contemplating it. Kai followed his gaze for a moment before turning back to the bluenette.

"Hn," was all he said, though it came out a little softer than it normally would.

"I thought you were really going to kill Brooklyn," Tyson continued, turning back to Kai. "From the sound of it, that must have been some swordfight."

"Yeah," tried Kai to converse. "It was…good."

"Yeah." Then Tyson's eyes wandered to the window again.

They were silent after that, both aware that they were avoiding all the things that mattered, not addressing all the issues and questions their performance had raised—the kisses, the handholding and the touches; their feelings which had been revealed with great clarity in the span of the five acts. Yet, the way their conversation was going, they might as well have been strangers talking about the weather.

"I really like acting with you, Kai." Kai looked up at Tyson from the cup he had been turning in his hand. "We've never had real rehearsals but…I seem to know what your next move was going to be. It's not premeditated. It's like I'm psychic."

Kai exhaled what could have been the infant of a laugh.

"Freaky," he said, smiling down at Tyson. "I seem to feel the same way."

"Maybe, in your new school, you could join the Drama Club," suggested Tyson.

_New school. _The innocent words felt like…a cannon ball coming down onto his chest.

"Maybe."

There was another silence filled with words that could not be uttered and actions which never came into fruition beyond the imagination. They couldn't even look at each other properly.

Finally, in the bid to be helpful, somewhat, Kai said, "Tomorrow's Monday. Don't you have homework to do?"

Given what they had just been through, that was the lamest thing Kai could have said and once the words were out, Kai realised the implications of those words, how they must have sounded to Tyson. It alarmed him because the last thing he wanted was for Tyson to feel like Kai wanted him out of his hair.

"Oh yeah." And the hurt and disappointment Kai feared was just barely perceivable in Tyson's tone. "I have a report to write for Romero, about my experience in the Drama Club. It is due next week, though…" Catching himself, Tyson perked up and cried, "But I could start early!"

Kai lowered his eyes to the carpet again. "Yeah, you could."

He saw Tyson's feet take a step back. He looked up into Tyson's smile.

"Keep in touch, ol' pal," Tyson said, giving him a light punch on a shoulder before turning around and walking away.

Kai watched Tyson's back disappear into the crowd. He stood there a moment longer before he pushed himself off the wall, wove through the crowd, stepping out of the theatre where he got into a cab which was waiting at the taxi stand and was taken home.

* * *

On usual Monday mornings, Kai would be out of his bed early and he would actually throw in a few rounds of bicep curls with his weights, a hundred crunches and about the same number of push-ups before he headed into the shower to wash off his morning sweat. Then it would be his usual bland breakfast, a cup of coffee and a walk to school.

There was always something strange about those rare Monday mornings where you wake up and you do not go on with your usual routine to start off the week. Kai completed his usual workout routine and showered, but there was no uniform hanging on the handle of his wardrobe door. For a bleary moment, shirtless, towel-clad Kai thought the maid forgot about it, but then he saw his traveling case at the foot of the wardrobe and it dawned on him that that day was not a normal Monday. That day was the day he was going to leave.

He had told his friends not to meet him to say goodbye or anything and they had understood. He had not told Tyson the same thing but Tyson…must have understood enough from their conversation the day before to not bother Kai about something as petty as goodbyes. The morning was oddly silent and for an even odder second, he thought he heard Tyson's voice calling him from below his window. He looked and saw no one. Not even the gardener who was always there trimming the rose bushes.

Kai dressed in his usual outfit: his T-shirt, pants, belt, jacket and his usual white scarf. The outfit was not far off from the one he wore to watch Tyson's first performance, the one where he saw Brooklyn kiss Tyson. _Brooklyn._ Kai could not help but think about the senior and his actions the day before, how Brooklyn had pushed Tyson towards him, as if it was a final act of sacrifice on the senior's part. Kai could not help but chuckle humourlessly. What use was such an abdication if Kai was going to leave?

He could have told Tyson that yes, they could keep in touch. However, even his friends were apprehensive about suggesting it. He thought that it was for the best that Tyson and himself kept things apart. Maybe when they meet again, they could pick up where they left off just as they had before, after Tyson's sudden return. Yet, at the back of his mind, he understood that they were not kids anymore, that things had changed between them. Tyson was no longer the silly kid who used to scare people with boogers and Kai was no longer the silly kid who smooshed Tyson's face into the dirt on an almost regular basis. Every thing that was spoken between them, every touch of their skin, every look they shared was electrified with hopes and desires they never knew they could sire.

Being alone in a room, one was bound to think damaging thoughts, so Kai took himself out of the room and wandered around the mansion he was not going to see once he stepped out of the door and into the waiting car.

Kai would have preferred to avoid that room, the sitting room, but as it was with a lot of things regarding Tyson, his body possessed a mind of its own and he soon found himself standing in front of it. The door was ajar, so he pushed it open to let himself in.

He could just make out the shape of the chairs against which Tyson and himself leaned whenever they were reading the play together underneath the white shrouds. The same white shroud was stretched like a drum skin over the small table which had once supported all of Tyson's chocolate and tea-time indulgences. The carpet was still spread below them and Kai couldn't help removing a shoe to rub the sole of his foot against it the way Tyson liked to do whenever he came over. The carpet was still luxuriant and Kai could have sworn that it was still warm from Tyson's bum. Why, if Kai listened hard enough, he could hear Tyson's stupid jokes and the tinkle of his laugh.

Kai caught himself and immediately put on his shoe with another humourless chuckle. Everywhere he looked in the room, he saw the ghosts of Tyson, as if the younger teen was dead when in truth, it was Kai who was leaving, and it was his ghost which would haunt this room, the college hallways down which he had walked unchallenged, his books under his arm, his hands in his blazer pockets. But it was only Tyson he saw everywhere; echoes of Tyson, shadows of Tyson—ghosts, which he knew would not leave him no matter what the distance he tried to put between them.

The room was getting too eerie for him to stay in any longer. He had to leave.

When he was about to turn around, something in the east side of the room caught his attention. It was a door. That ought not to be anything strange because Kai was not unaware of its presence all the time he had lived in the mansion. Except that the door was always locked, apparently on Voltaire Hiwatari's order. What was strange about the door then was that the door which was always locked was actually gaping open. Anybody would be drawn by it simply by that fact alone.

Kai turned back and made for that door. He stopped in the threshold. The room was as large as the sitting room he had just come from, only it was less sparse. Bookshelves lined the walls and stood like parallel sentinels in the center of the room, all of them packed full of books, books which seemed to belong better in an eighteenth century personal library than in the current one: ancient leather- and linen-bounds with gold lettering on their spines, all of them giving the room a particular musty smell.

In one corner there was a space clear of shelves and in that space stood a table, rather like a desk meant for writing and not those low coffee table types. Around the table were comfortable-looking chairs with antique embroidered cushioning. In one of the chairs sat Albert, wearing his reading glasses and perusing a book.

When Kai stepped into the room, Albert sat up straighter, closed the book and started to stand.

"No," Kai told him, gesturing for him to sit down again.

Albert stood anyway and removed his glasses, chuckling as he did so.

"My apologies, Master Kai," he said. "I got carried away."

"What is this room?" asked Kai, looking around him, curious despite himself.

"It is a library," Albert pointed out with a little smile.

"I didn't know we had a library." Looking at Albert, Kai asked again, "Why is this room kept locked?"

Albert smiled sadly at this and his gaze fell to the book he was reading before Kai came in. Kai followed his gaze but standing quite a distance, he could not make out the title. As if sensing this, Albert held up the book so that Kai could see the title better. It was a children's book: _Anne of Green Gables_, a collector's leather-bound gift edition.

"This was your mother's favourite," Albert told him. "Read it every time she was down. Read it out loud when she was pregnant with you."

Gesturing all around him at the books in the library, Albert added, "But then again, she loved everything in this room. Even tried reading Copernicus' theory of the planets' revolution around the sun in its original language. Couldn't pronounce half of the words, what more understand them."

Albert chuckled at the memory.

"This room," Kai began, intrigued. "This was…hers?"

Albert nodded and started for a shelf, carrying the book with him. He turned his back to Kai as he slid the book back where he had taken it.

"Your grandfather…" said Albert, still not facing Kai. "He gave this room to your mother as a wedding gift. Loved her, like a daughter he never had."

"My grandfather?" Kai could not help but say skeptically.

Albert turned around and smiled. "Hard to believe isn't it?"

Absently, running a hand along the spines of the books, Albert added, "She was a librarian before she married your father. She dreamt of owning her own library and when your grandfather knew this, he had the library in the other mansion transferred over here. I still remembered how she looked when she came in here for the first time, still in her wedding dress… From then on she would be here almost everyday when your father was at work."

There was a pause before Albert went on again, "Sometimes your grandfather sat in here with her, not saying much…just the two of them reading, but you can tell that they were perfectly comfortable with each other. You can imagine how it was when the news of the accident came. Your grandfather had this room locked and gave me the key before he left."

"My mother was a librarian?" Kai asked, his brows furrowing in puzzlement. "Then why did my grandfather give Tyson such a hard time?"

Albert was silent for a moment before speaking.

"Have you ever wondered what your mother was like, Kai?" asked Albert, taking out another book to glance over the preface.

Kai lowered his eyes to the wooden floor, on which not a speck of dust could be seen. Of his parents, Kai had only seen a few slightly yellowed photographs in an old album. Apparently, he had his father's hair and his mother's eyes…but none of their demeanours. In every photograph, his father was always smiling and his mother, always laughing as if every shot was a candid one. As would any orphan, Kai always wondered what they were like, what having parents was like…and of course, what his mother was like.

"A ball of energy she was," Albert told him. "Always so enthusiastic about doing things. So excited about practically everything. The first time your father brought her home to introduce her to your grandfather, she was not frightened like most people would be. Just bounced up to the venerable Voltaire Hiwatari and proffered her hand as if it was the most natural thing to do."

Albert replaced the book he had been holding and went over to the only window in the library, gesturing for Kai to come over.

"You see that garden down there?" asked Albert, pointing to the said spot when Kai was beside him at the window. "She used to play…can you believe it? _Play _there, a grown woman of her age. Her favourites were make-believe games. Be a mermaid, or a hero whatever, and she would somehow draw your father and grandfather in to join her. Her magnetism was a force to reckon with, I assure you."

Kai did not look up at Albert, but only continued to stare at a patch of grass in the garden. He tried to imagine what she must have been like, a grown woman playing inane games in the garden. She must have laughed a lot and she must have made others laugh a lot.

"In this mansion, your grandfather lost a beloved wife…his only son and your mother, the only other person who could make him see the better part of life. What do you think that does to a person, Kai?" Albert said quietly. Placing a hand on the young man's shoulder, he added, "It is human to err and your grandfather is only human."

Kai wanted to say something, anything…but words failed him at the moment. However, he was spared from having to come up with a response when one of the maids came rushing into the room, stopping at the threshold and spent the good part of a minute trying to catch her breath.

"Master Kai," she gasped, her hand on her bosom, "your grandfather…he…he's leaving."

That jolted Kai out of his initial stupor. "What?" he cried, staring at her. "But I thought we're only leaving after lunch!"

The maid looked like she knew the answer as much as Kai. Kai exchanged a look with Albert and the two of them hurried past her, out of the sitting room, down the staircase, not stopping until they were out on the porch, where the elder Hiwatari was having a word with one of the staff members who was seeing him off. He turned when he heard Kai and Albert arrive.

"Master Hiwatari," Albert said breathlessly.

"Grandfather," Kai spoke at the same time.

Voltaire Hiwatari turned his body fully until he was facing Kai, who took a few steps towards him but not quite near enough for physical contact. His grandfather looked as severe as ever, standing straighter than any man his age, his hands folded over the knob of his cane.

"I will be leaving for the first mansion," he said by way of explanation.

"I am still not—" Kai began.

Voltaire turned and started to walk away. "Alone."

Albert looked over to the servants who had lined up just outside the door but even they were as puzzled as he was.

"You were retained once Kai, don't let it happen again," Voltaire went on, not stopping his descend to the waiting car at the foot of the steps.

Then Voltaire stopped and looked up though not back to where Kai and the servants were standing. "The library is yours to do as you wish," he added.

All Kai could see was the elder Hiwatari's back, but whatever his grandfather was feeling, the severity of the voice never wavered. Yet, there was enough in it to make Kai take a few steps forward until he was right at the top of the steps and call out, "Grandfather."

It would have made sense for Kai to embrace his grandfather or thank him, but both Hiwataris were not used to those kinds of things. For Voltaire, affection was a thing so ancient that it was almost lost under layers of sediment that was his day-to-day living, faded and almost forgotten. For Kai, affection was something newly revealed, like scenic hills after a fog had lifted. Whatever it was, for the Hiwataris, the world of tender emotions was still largely alien to them.

Voltaire stopped when he heard his name called, but still did not look back. With a "Hn", he started down the steps again and must not have looked up at his grandson until the car door, with its tinted windows, was shut on him by the chauffeur.

Albert joined Kai at the top of the stairs to watch the back of the fast diminishing car, wishing, deep in his heart, the elder Hiwatari a safe journey home, hopefully to one where no ghosts lurked at every turn. Perhaps, just perhaps, the older Hiwatari was wishing the same in his own quiet way.

* * *

**Next Chapter: CURTAIN**


	17. CURTAIN

**Disclaimer: **As of the first chapter.

**Author Note: **Thank you all for reading. Enjoy this one! :)

* * *

**Chapter 16: CURTAIN**

**

* * *

**

The moment the car disappeared through the gate, Kai turned and started for the door.

"The furniture, Albert," he said to his butler. It was the first thing he could think of. He wanted all the white shrouds off the furniture in the sitting room. He wanted the curtains back up and the windows thrown open.

Albert smiled down at the young master and replied, "I will see to it immediately, Master Kai, but you will need to get going to school."

Kai stopped and looked up at his butler. "School?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Albert gave no answer, only smiled and went up to the servants to assign them their duties. It seemed that none of them had, much to their relief, been made redundant after all and there was much to be done.

Kai watched Albert disappear into the mansion, along with the rest of the servants, and suddenly it dawned on him what the butler meant. The discovery of the library, the part of his grandfather's history he had never known, the surprise from Voltaire's departure for the first mansion alone, and the exchange between his grandfather and himself, all lent to a momentary lapse in Kai's line of thinking. He had not thought about what he ought to do next, with regards to…school and everything pertaining to it.

His legs moved on their own accord, taking him down the steps and along the path leading to the gate at breakneck speed, and his mind became a stubborn blank. He would not think about what his actions would be, what he would say. He was only going to act, just act.

He didn't know how fast he must have run, but the next thing he knew, he was at the school gate, beads of perspiration rolling down the side of his face, tracing its lineaments to his chin. It was still early yet; it wasn't even the first break, making him feel like such a fool for rushing over. The students were not to be dismissed for a few hours yet, so he decided to occupy his time, loitering around the town until it was dismissal.

The hours practically ticked by. He could have called Tala or something, tell him to come down to the gate, and he knew the redhead was unscrupulous enough to do such a thing in the middle of class, but digging his pockets for his cell phone came up empty. So he had to wait…and when the hour finally came, he was already at the school gate for a good hour and a half.

His friends took another hour to come out. Kai had banked on seeing Ray or Spencer at least because they did not have dorm rooms, but it just so happened that all his friends were going out for ice cream, so Tala and Bryan were there as well. All of them stared at him when they saw him approach from the side of the school gate.

"What the hell are_ you_ doing here?" Tala cried the moment he could find his voice.

"Yeah, we were all going out to mope with ice cream and all!" Bryan put in. "Damn, you just spoiled the mood."

"Where's Tyson?" demanded Kai, ignoring their remarks.

There was silence and then Tala spoke, "He isn't in class today."

"He isn't in school?" Kai said, staring at them. "You mean he's at home the whole time?"

His friends did not seem to get the gravity of the situation as Bryan replied, "Well…where else could he be if he is not in school?"

"He wasn't on the roof," Spencer said. "I was there with my peas during break."

"Yeah, we didn't even see him at break either," Ray put in helpfully. "You know how he is with food. He would never miss it. I can ask Max for you if you want. He would only be changing for his Track-and-Field training right about now."

Kai did not stay to hear more. He spun on his heels and took off in the direction of the Grangers' house.

He could hear Ray's voice call out, "We're glad you're staying, Kai!" and Bryan's random cry of, "Remember to wear a condom!", but did not turn to look or respond.

Tala was strangely quiet, only watched his friend's back with a knowing curl of one side of his lips, his arms crossed over his chest, very Kai-like.

* * *

Kai skidded to a halt outside the Granger's gate and even so was still slightly breathless when he was finally through it and standing before the door. He took a deep breath before knocking. No one answered for a while and he tried again. Tyson _had _to be home. He had to be.

Kai's heart gave a jolt when the door finally slid open, but there was no one there. Kai frowned and was about to call out when he heard a voice saying from somewhere below him, "What do you want?"

On looking down, Kai saw the redheaded midget that was Tyson's little brother. He couldn't decide on whether to feel frustrated that it was not the direct confrontation he'd hoped for or glad that at least he had some time to word himself properly before he did meet Tyson.

"I'm here to see Tyson," he told Daichi.

"We're not interested in anything you're selling," Daichi replied.

"I'm not selling anything!" Kai cried.

However, Daichi was unperturbed. "Yeah right, that's what they always say. Now scram, we don't want to buy anything."

With that he started to close the door. Kai lashed out a hand and slammed it back open though that did not seem to affect Daichi in any way at all.

"Daichi!" he roared into the redhead's face.

"Sheesh, salesmen are so persistent nowadays," said Daichi. "What do you want?"

Kai took another deep breath (because he really needed it). He felt a vein throb in his temple.

"Daichi, I am _not_ a salesman," he explained, trying his best to be calm.

"You might be one. You never know." Daichi was casually unwrapping a sweet as he said that and this he popped into his mouth.

"I. Need. To. See. Tyson," Kai gritted.

"Why didn't you say so before? Come on in!"

If Kai had been a chainsaw-wielding mass murderer and if Tyson was not the most important person in his life, this boy was going to be one of the first to go. He followed the boy's lead and stepped into the house, allowing himself to be lead down a familiar corridor and to a room at the end of it.

Daichi did not give Kai a moment to check himself before he threw open the door to reveal Tyson sprawled on his stomach on his bed, reading a book, the headphones of his music player in his ears. His hair was loose and the back of his yellow T-shirt had hiked up a bit to give a glimpse of the small of his back. Tyson's eyes appeared puffy and there was a box of tissues on the floor near him, along with a wastepaper basket filled with crushed tissue paper.

To Kai, Tyson looked severely…fuckable.

"Tyson!" Daichi's yell made Kai check his thoughts. "Your friend's here to see you!"

Tyson looked up and sat up immediately when he spotted Kai, causing his headphones to be yanked right out of his ears.

"K...K…K…Kai!" he could not stop himself from stammering. "Wha—"

"A walk?" Kai asked, looking at Tyson steadily.

"You're going out? Where?" Daichi demanded. "I wanna go too!"

"Tyson?" Kai called ignoring the little redhead.

Tyson seemed to snap out of his shock. "Oh, yeah. Why not? Just…just let me put myself together."

Kai would have loved to have Tyson go out in what he was wearing—a comfortable-looking, thin yellow T-shirt and his shorts—but only nodded and left to wait in the living room.

Kai could hear Daichi yelling, "Where are you going? Hey, Tyyyyy-son!"

"Daichi, just…go, okay?" And then a door was shut.

Daichi joined him in the living room as Kai made himself comfortable on the sofa. When Kai crossed his arms over his chest, a leg over the other and closed his eyes, Daichi saw that he was not going to make a conversationalist out of Kai and left with an utterance of "Sheesh. Losers".

Tyson came into the living room soon after, wearing an outfit he had thrown on in the last minute to quite an effect. He'd kept his yellow shirt, thrown a red jacket over it because it was getting a bit chilly out, and had swapped his shorts for a pair of grey jeans. He hadn't had time to do his hair, so had simply swept it back in a low ponytail and as he came into the room, jammed a cap onto his head, messing up his bangs.

Kai liked the outfit. It brought out something of the boy he knew from his childhood in Tyson. It was something familiar, something warm and it was indeed something: a collection of colours that only Tyson could pull off.

"All ready, captain!" Tyson announced cheerfully as if his condition before Kai's arrival had never happened. "Shall we go?"

Kai stood up wordlessly and they set off just as silently.

* * *

Kai had no particular place in mind as he walked beside the bluenette and Tyson was letting Kai take the lead. There were so many questions he wanted to ask Kai, like what was he doing there in the first place, but, allowing himself a sidelong glance at Kai's side profile, Kai did not look like he was out to answer questions.

Of course, Tyson could not forget everything that had gone on between them since the walk home in the rain. He had certainly not gotten over the few hours on stage with Kai, what they had done, and when the reality of Kai's leaving finally carved itself in the stone of his mind, he had not been able to hold back the sudden flood of despair which came over him. This was why he had feinted illness to get his grandfather to let him stay home. Whether his grandfather had bought the act or seen through it, he certainly had not said much, and only conceded with a particularly hard look at his grandson. And _then, _while he was indulging in a sappy story and even more sappy songs, Kai had appeared in his doorway, like a dream.

Life was beginning to become annoyingly like a soap opera, thought Tyson.

"You could do with a smile or two, Tyson," he heard Kai say from beside him. "Your face is how my bread looked when I left it on the table for a month."

Tyson whipped his head to look at Kai, shocked that the older guy had cracked a joke…at such a time too. That was when he found that they had stopped and that they were at the playground where they used to get into scuffles in the past. Everything seemed to go back full circle when it came to Kai, and Tyson couldn't help but smile at the thought of it.

Tyson had taken to looking all around him as if it was someplace new. It being a Monday and evening casting its mild, orange glow on everything it touched, the playground was deserted of children. The swing was still rocking though, as if someone had just jumped off it and ran home.

"Hey, Kai," Tyson began. "I thought you were—"

"I'm not going," Kai cut in, too quickly.

Tyson went silent and Kai had to take a deep breath before going on.

"I will be staying," said Kai, feeling the redundancy of his words.

Tyson only stared at him before turning his attention elsewhere. The situation was fast turning awkward and he felt the pressure to put up a façade of normalcy.

Wandering over to the merry-go-round and stretching his fists to the sky, he said, "This place sure brings back memories, huh? The fights are still going on, though. Daichi said so himself."

Pointing, Tyson added, "This girl called Hilary used to build sandcastles over there."—He chuckled.— "Wanted to build a really big one where she could reign supreme, but we boys would always jump on it, and watch her get mad at us. That girl got an arm, I've got to admit."

"Tyson," Kai called out quietly.

"I really like these swings though," Tyson went on, wandering over to the swings next, not hearing Kai. He took hold of one of the chains which held up a swing and rattled it a little. "I don't know, but I seem to recall Brooklyn as a little kid sitting here and I was talking to him. I vaguely remember that he was crying…but I don't know what it was about or what I said to him exactly. I must have been really young then. I wonder if he remembers it though. Do you—"

He spun around to look at Kai but found that Kai was directly behind him, standing close, so close it would have caused him to bolt if Kai's hand had not closed over his on the chain.

"How is it that my life seems to start and end with you, Tyson?" asked Kai, gazing down at his childhood friend. "You seep into everything, made everything…you."

"Kai?"

Kai only shook his head and pressed his forehead to Tyson's, the way he had in front of his mansion's gate the first time Tyson met his grandfather. The image of the library came up to his mind and Kai imagined how his mother must have looked like, sitting in it surrounded by her books. The image of his mother easily dissolved into one of Tyson. Tyson in that room, surrounded by books…

Pulling away, Kai continued, "I am not…good with words, Tyson." He paused, trying to find the right words to say. "I…"

He let out a loud breath, exhaling like a deflated balloon. "I…" he tried again.

Tyson let go of the swing's chain, reached up with one hand and cupped the back of Kai's head with it. With his other hand, he slipped his cap off his head before pressing the other down towards him. Kai's widened eyes pretty much revealed his emotions at that moment.

"Hey, dude," Tyson murmured into Kai's ear. "It's okay."

Kai knew it would not be okay, but Tyson pulled him down and their lips locked. It was all he could do to close his eyes and let himself sink into the moment, the sensation. Some day he would say the things that mattered out loud to Tyson. Some day he would be ready to tell Tyson exactly how he felt in words of his own making. That day would come, but until then, Kai needed to get stronger, strong enough to face Tyson with his heart.

They pulled away and Kai took Tyson's hand before they started walking out of the playground. The streets were practically deserted, so a little indiscretion like that was fine.

"Say, you were really great at the performance last night," Tyson spoke as they ambled down the street, with no particular direction in mind. "Ever thought of joining the Drama Club permanently?"

"Tyson," Kai replied, looking down at Tyson with the 'that-was-such-a-stupid-thing-to-say' look.

"They were thinking of putting up _Othello_ for the upcoming youth festival competition."

Kai knew the play and said, "Do I look like a wife-killer to you?"

Tyson laughed. "You have your moments…and who says you'll be playing the lead male role anyway? I can totally see you as Desdemona."

"Me in a dress? No thanks." Kai thought back to the costume he had to wear to play Romeo… He still had not gotten over the tights which had cupped him in all the wrong places and seemed to offer him no coverage even with the shirt and the doublet on. He did not want to imagine what wearing a dress would entail.

"The other option was Beckett's _Waiting for Godot._ Apparently it's a tragicomedy. Seems like an interesting thing and a good break from all that Shakespeare," Tyson mused.

Tragicomedy, huh? thought Kai. What had Romero said in class about that genre of drama? Try as Kai might, he couldn't remember, but there was something in it about the inescapability and futility of life, and all of its various absurdities. That was something rather worth watching; only it seemed so dark and gloomy. Right then, life looked…sunset-y…orange, peach… Kai couldn't decide which, only that evening was going to descend into night and perhaps it was better that he didn't keep Tyson out too late.

"Hey," he said, tugging Tyson lightly by the hand and thus tugging the other out of his own reveries.

"Wha?"

"Do you think your grandfather should know about us?" Kai asked.

"That is in the books, I'm sure," replied Tyson with a casual tilt of his head.

"Do you think he would disapprove?" Kai was almost afraid to ask.

Tyson laughed again and shouldered Kai causing him to stagger slightly. "You think too much, Mr. Hiwatari. Life's like the wind. When it comes it comes. "

Kai, determined as ever not to lose to Tyson, tried to shoulder the other back, but Tyson ran a little forward and Kai had to tighten his hold on Tyson's hand to prevent the bluenette from going too far.

"Which _wind_ would you be talking about, Granger?" he asked with a slight smirk.

Tyson tried to pull away but Kai held on. In time, Tyson chuckled. "Both," he said.

Looking back at Kai, Tyson said again, "We take things at our own pace, Kai," then with a knowing grin, added, "a scene at a time."

* * *

**Finis**


End file.
